Titania's Boyfriends
by mjxecxjd
Summary: What will happen to Jellal and Erza after they have read the story of "Titania's Boyfriends" published in Sorcerer Weekly?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

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Crime Socière hunted down another dark guild one week ago. It was not a very strong guild which composed of not more than fifty members. However, it turned out that this dark guild was no way an easy one to be dealt with. Reason one, the year-round snowing mountain at the north of the country where their headquarters was based, was a perfect natural barrier to prevent intrusion from outsiders due to the bad weather and the complications of the topography. Reason two, the guild members, although were not very powerful in terms of their magic power, were pretty intelligent otherwise that they managed to get away from Crime Socière for several times. Therefore, once Crime Socière had destroyed this dark guild after living in snowing mountain for six months and experiencing several times of failures in capturing the dark guild, Ultear opined that it was time for them to take a break for recovery before continuing to the next hunting. After some searches, Ultear rented a vacation house which was located by the side of a lake in the countryside near the east broader of the country, for her and her comrades to enjoy some leisure time.

It was the second night of their weeklong break. Jellal was resting on the sofa, staring at the ceiling and trying to relax his mind by not thinking anything, when the door of the house was being opened.

"We're back!" Ultear and Meredy said at the same time when entering the house.

"Welcome back." Jellal smiled at them. "It seems that you two have a big plan for tonight's dinner."

Ultear and Meredy went to a nearby town to buy food in the afternoon and Jellal could see that each of them was now holding two large bags filled with foods and drinks.

"Yup! Ultear and I decided that we will have a 4-course dinner tonight as a little reward for our hard work in the past six months!" Meredy spoke with excitement while following Ultear to walk into the kitchen.

Jellal stood up and went into the kitchen too. The two ladies had already put down the bags on the table.

"Jellal, you see! We've bought romaine lettuce, croutons and parmesan cheese for the salad. Pumpkin is for the soup. These beef steaks will be the main course…and ice-cream for dessert!" Meredy explained when picking up the foods from inside the bags.

"And your favorite red wine too." Added Ultear who was now holding three wine bottles in her hands.

"That sounds really great. You need any help from me?"

"No, thanks. Don't you remember that you have already demonstrated your terrible cooking skills when you volunteered to cook for Meredy's birthday dinner? I don't want you to mess up our well-planned dinner tonight." Ultear teased Jellal. "So, just go out and relax yourself will be fine. Meredy will help me to do the cooking."

"Well…um…" Jellal cleared his throat, looked embarrassed. "I guess I better stay out from the kitchen then."

Jellal stepped out from the kitchen, walked pass the living room and went directly to the balcony. In the darkness of the night, he could see no scenery of the lake or the countryside but only the twinkling stars in the dark blue sky which were nonetheless beautiful. Yet he still preferred the scenery during the daytime. With sunlight, the balcony provided a stunning view of a shinning greenish lake surrounded by maples with leaves already turned fiercely red in this autumn season. Unavoidably, the flaming red of the maple leaves reminded him the color of hair of the woman whom he loved.

_Erza Scarlet_. Jellal hadn't seen her for more than a year now since the end of the Grand Magic Games. It didn't mean that the two had lost their contact, as at least Jellal did keep his promise to write letter to Erza for several times already to assure her that he was still alive. Just that Jellal never received a reply from Erza. The reason? Crime Socière was constantly moving from one place to another following the activities of different dark guilds that it was impossible for Jellal to provide an address for Erza to write back to him.

But Jellal did know a bit of Erza's current situation. Being the strongest female mage in Fairy Tail which was the number one guild in Fiore, Erza attracted lots of attention in the magic world. Therefore, Jellal would from time to time hear people gossiping about Erza's recent moves. Sometimes, he would also find her news in the Sorcerer Weekly bought by Meredy. It seemed to Jellal that Erza was living a good life so far after the Grand Magic Games, since never once did Jellal hear that she failed a mission or hurt or charged by the Magic Council. The knowing of Erza being fine brought Jellal some comfort even it was not told by Erza in person. But if Jellal was to be honest with himself, he would have to admit that such comfort was far from enough to fill the void in his heart which caused by Erza's absence in his life.

He missed her so much. Her hair, her face, her smile, her voice, her touch, her scent, her tenderness, her affection, her forgiveness, her kind heart, her strong will, her childish, her fragility, her...her everything. _Everything_.

Yet no matter how desperate he yearned for her, he could not come close to her. This was the cruelest punishment he had chosen for himself, because that was what he rightly deserved for the unforgivable sins he had committed. To have her presence in his imagination was all he allowed himself to do.

Jellal closed his eyes and the image of the scarlet haired woman gradually formed in his head. He liked to imagine her carrying a worry-free smile on her face. After a short moment, he opened his eyes and inhaled deeply the cool air of the night to refresh his tired body and exhausted mind.

"Jellal?" Meredy called Jellal from inside the kitchen, which broke the silence surrounding Jellal.

"Yes, Meredy?" Jellal shouted back. He wondered what caused Meredy to summon him. When he stepped in the living room, his eyes caught something throwing at him directly. He stretched out his arm to grasp that "something" by instinct; he then found a copy of Sorcerer Weekly in his hand.

"This is the latest issue I just brought." Meredy reached out her head from the kitchen's doorway to speak to Jellal. "I think you can read it to kill some time while waiting for the dinner. Moreover," She paused for a second and gave Jellal a sly yet sympathetic look. "I think there's something you would like to read in this issue." She smirked at Jellal and then was back to the kitchen again.

Meredy's hint lit up some kind of expectation in Jellal's heart. The pink-headed always knew his main interest in Sorcerer Weekly was to read Erza's news. Jellal looked at the cover of the magazine. The cover story of this issue was "Welcome to Lamia Scale's New Headquarters!" and the cover mages were Jura, Lyon and Shelia. These familiar faces bought up a smile on Jellal's face. However, his smile faded away in the next instance when his eyes caught by the image of another mage and the story title which occupied the space at the lower right corner of the magazine cover.

It was Erza and the lines across her photo read:

"Meet Titania's boyfriends! Who will win the Fairy Queen's heart?"

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A/N: Thanks for reading and sorry for any grammatical mistakes / wrong usage of words. I have the story outline in my head but I found it somehow difficult to express my ideas accurately in English, so it may take me some times to update the next.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: First of all, many many thanks to everyone who have read, followed, favored and/or write a review. Your responses are truly encouraging. To those who were curious to know who Titania's boyfriends are, the identity of the boyfriends will now be revealed.

Again, my apologies in advance for any grammatical mistake / wrong usage of word.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

"Meet Titania's boyfriends! Who will win the Fairy Queen's heart?"

Jellal suddenly felt like as if someone had punched him hard on his stomach, making him feel nausea and dizzy, when reading the above story title on the cover of Sorcerer Weekly. It couldn't be considered as normal for his body to react in such radical way all of a sudden. He was confused at what had happened to him.

_I better sit down first and let myself calm down a bit now_.

Sinking his body into the sofa, Jellal breathed deeply for several times, hands still holding the magazine. When he felt that the sickening feelings had been lessened, he looked at the cover again.

Those two lines, placed across a photo of Erza at the lower right corner on the cover of the magazine, were colored in red and circled by little pink hearts. Regarding the photo itself, it seemed that it was taken unbeknownst to Erza since she was not looking at the camera. She smiled sweetly and looked satisfied in the photo. It was not difficult for Jellal to figure out the reason behind Erza's dreamy look in this photo when he noticed a bakery in the background.

Jellal read the lines once again. _Titania's boyfriends_. He frowned a little at the words. _Plural number_. There was no doubt that Erza's strength and beauty would draw her bunch of admirers. But knowing her being a self-disciplined and serious person, Jellal didn't think that she would date several guys at a time.

_Maybe this story of "Titania's boyfriends" is only a gimmick to attract people to buy the magazine. But…what if one of these "boyfriends" turns out to be Erza's true lover?_

Jellal was now in a dilemma. On one hand, he held the view that he was in no position to concern about Erza's love life since his rejection to her on the beach. If she felt happy to date ten guys at a time he could just accept that fact. So there was no reason for him to bother with the story at all. On the other hand, he just couldn't stop that curious yet uneasy feelings caused by the idea of "Erza's boyfriends" from intensifying inside his chest. He would probably have insomnia tonight if he didn't get the whole picture of the story.

Finally, his rational thinking gave in to his feelings. With a sigh, he opened the magazine and flipped to the pages where Erza's story was reported.

Spaced out over two pages were six photos of Erza with six different guys. Before having a closer look at the photos to find out who those guys were, Jellal had a quick read at the introduction. In short, Erza was founded dating different guys and the reporter asked the readers to vote for the guy whom they thought Erza should tie the knot with.

_This is ridiculous!_ Jellal shouted in his head. _Why is it the readers' business to give view on who Erza should marry to if they don't even know Erza in person?_ If any random person could have a say on Erza's choice of husband, it would just seem more than legitimate for him to care about the same issue since at least he knew Erza since childhood.

Irritated already by the introduction, Jellal now turned his focus to the photos. Similar to that photo of Erza on the cover, neither did Erza nor any guys look at the camera in these photos. Jellal therefore judged that all the photos were taken by _very professional_ paparazzi since they managed to stalk Erza and then photo Erza and the guys without being found out. He noticed that the photos were all numbered probably for voting purpose and a short description was written for each photo.

On the left page, Jellal could see that Erza was shot pulling Natsu's arm when they were walking out from the doorway of an apartment house in one of the photos – "_The Titania couldn't let go Salamander after spending a night together_". In another one, the photographer captured the moment when Gray was wearing a bracelet on Erza's right wrist in a jewelry shop – "_The ice mage melted in front of the Titania and showed his rare side of affection and love when buying gift for his girl_". Erza was also caught of sharing one umbrella with Laxus in a rainy day – "_Taking a romantic walk in the rain, the lighting dragon slayer and the Titania were closing their distance_".

Jellal found the descriptions were somehow sensational which made him feel uncomfortable. He knew that the relationship between Fairy Tail members was as close as a true family, so what was doing by Erza and the guys of Fairy Tail in those photos did not necessarily involve the romance so wished to exist by the reporter. But…...

Was it really impossible for Erza to fall in love with one of them? Jellal asked himself. After all, these guys were good men who walked in the light, just liked Erza. He in particular remembered how Natsu shined lights of hope and never gave up saving Erza from his hands in the Tower of Heaven. The way Natsu protected Erza and vice versa even made him feel jealous at that moment because they were too bright together compared with his darkness. In fact...he might still hold that jealousy in his heart now.

_Oh no, I can't._ Jellal was startled at his own though._ I should only feel happy for Erza if she and one of these guys really go into a lover relationship._

Jellal slightly shook his head to clear his mind before looking at the three photos on the right page. He frowned at the photo which was taken in a pub where Erza was drinking a mug of beer while Bacchus who sat in opposite of her was looking at her with an amused look on his face – "_Only love could divert the attention of the Drunk Falcon from alcohol to the Titania who is developing new habit of drinking to please her man_". Jellal surely didn't like the idea of Erza dating a drunky, not to mention becoming one herself. Even that man was a strong mage in an official guild, he would insist that Erza deserved a more decent man because she was such a wonderful woman. Jellal was then displeased to see Erza looked panic in the next photo and the guy who stood behind her holding a few of her scarlet tresses near his nose was no one other than Ichiya – "_It was evidently too hard for Ichiya to ignore the seductive scarlet hair of his beloved Titania". _Jellal surely agreed that Erza's scarlet hair was _very_ seductive, but it couldn't justify Ichiya's harassment of Erza. It was clearly _more_ evident that Erza freaked out at how Ichiya touched her hair in the photo, which actually annoyed Jellal. He had no doubt that it was nonsense for Ichiya to claim Erza as his girlfriend and hoped that someday he could knock some senses into that short man's head.

But nothing hit Jellal harder than the image in the last photo.

That occasion looked like a ball. Erza, who was dressed up in a long dark blue strapless evening gown and set her hair in a French twist style, was leaning her back on the chest of Lahar of the Magic Council who was in his black tuxedo. The man's hands were holding Erza's bare shoulders from the back. "_How would have anyone foreseen that the Magic Council and the Fairy Tail will form a coalition in such romantic way? The Captain is such a charming gentleman that even the Titania falls for him_", the description read.

Jellal felt his chest tightened which made him hard to breath. He wasn't quite sure what exactly caused his anxiety. Was it because he was unprepared to see Erza being held close to other man? Or was it because he simply couldn't accept Lahar, who had arrested him before and was chasing him now, being _the man_ who was so privileged to hold Erza in his hands? Although as a matter of fact, not once did Jellal feel angry at Lahar before, knowing that Lahar was only doing his job and he was just facing the expected outcome of the crimes he committed. And honestly speaking, Lahar was much better than the Drunk Falcon and the perfumed short man. Lahar was a strong mage working for the Magic Council with high social status. He was a man who walked in the light with a strong will to uphold justice. He was smart, decent, well-mannered and good looking too. All in all, he could truly be someone who fit Erza perfectly. But once the thought of pairing Lahar with Erza formed in Jellal's head, the sickening feelings of nausea and dizzy rushed back to Jellal in a second.

Put down the magazine on the sofa, Jellal pressed his temples with his palms and ran his fingers into his blue locks, trying to get rid of those sickening feelings from him again.

And if Jellal could blame someone for putting him in such unsettling status now, it had to be Meredy. Why did she have to ask him to read this god dame magazine in the first place?

* * *

A/N: So, you now found out what Sorcerer Weekly's story of "Titania's Boyfriends" was about. What do you think? I hope that it was not too disappointing, and that it might even amuse you a bit.

I guess there were not many surprises for the list of "boyfriends". After all, I chose these guys because of their interactions/relations with Erza. It is not uncommon to pair Natsu / Gray with Erza in the FT fandom. Ichiya is infamous for his one-sided love on Erza. Laxus' interaction with Erza is not that much but I notice that fans tend to see Laxus as a big brother to Erza. And we all know Bacchus praised Erza as "a fine woman". Lahar is probably the only one you didn't expect to show up, although you might have now figured out why he was in.

Lastly, if you are still interested in reading the next chapter, I am sorry (again) that next update will probably take even longer, since I will be out town for 8 days very soon. Besides, I want to try writing some oneshots for Jerza Week starting on May 26 on tumblr. So, I would appreciate your patience.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: My heartfelt thank you to everyone who read, followed, favorited and/or gave review to this story! And I just noticed that it has been a month since I posted the 2nd chapter…I better speed up my writing...

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

Sitting at the dining table, Jellal forced himself to put aside the whole story of "Erza's boyfriends" but to focus on the delicious foods prepared by his comrades.

Jellal knew that Ultear liked cooking which was her way for relaxing her mind. However, there were very few opportunities for her to cook properly since Crime Socière was always living in the wild, either running after a dark guild or hiding from the Magic Council. So Jellal felt good that Ultear could do something she truly enjoyed during their break. Besides, when Utlear was allowed to do cooking with good ingredients in a fully equipped kitchen, the foods she cooked could taste really good.

Jellal didn't want the rare 4-course dinner be wasted because of the bad mood he fell in after reading that magazine. He wanted to show that he was truly thankful for the effort of Ultear and Meredy in preparing the nice dinner and valued the good time they shared together. He wanted to enjoy the foods with his comrades without distraction from other things.

But his comrades seemed to think otherwise.

"So Jellal," Meredy spoke causally while cutting her steak. "You have read the Sorcerer Weekly, right? What do you think about Erza's boyfriends?"

Jellal choked on the wine he was drinking. Both Meredy and Ultear giggled at his reaction.

"Nothing." Jellal tried to answer as emotionless as he could. He then took another sip of the wine.

"Oh really?" Ultear asked with a high-pitched voice which clearly showed that she didn't believe Jellal at all. "So you don't care who Erza's boyfriends are or even who will be her future husband?"

"It's not my business." Jellal finished the remaining wine in his wineglass.

Ultear shrugged at Jellal's response. "Well, well. You may have your point. It's neither my business I guess. But I still have some thoughts on those guys." She then turned to Meredy. "Laxus seems to be someone who can take care of Erza. He will probably become the next Master of Fairy Tail and Erza will become the Mistress if they marry, which sounds good. Don't you think so?"

Jellal filled his glass with wine before continuing eating his steak, trying not to pay attention to what Ultear just said.

"Yeah, that sounds great in fact! But how about Lahar? I don't like him at all. But Erza may think differently. Don't you think that they share some similarities in their characters? And if they are lovers, the number of warning letters received by Fairy Tail from the Magic Council may drop significantly."

Ultear laughed. "I think none of us here will like Lahar. After all, we are fugitives and he wants to catch us. But I agree that he and Erza could be a good match."

Jellal downed the wine in his glass in one shot and filled it again. His head started to ache.

"And how about Ichiya?" Meredy suggested. "I think he's weird, but I heard that he and Erza have known each other for a long time and he always claims Erza as his girlfriend."

"No way."

Jellal interrupted before Ultear could respond to Meredy's comments. Ultear and Meredy exchanged a knowing glance.

"So, you have something to share with us about Erza's boyfriends now, Jellal?" Ultear asked with anticipation.

Jellal opened another bottle of red wine to fill his empty glass.

"No. I don't. I have nothing to do with this topic." He insisted his stance before drinking another glass of wine.

Ultear sighed silently in her head. _Jellal, you do realize that you're not lying to us but to yourself right now, don't you? _ Her conversation with Meredy might sound mean to Jellal, but they just wanted to find out what Jellal was thinking after reading that story of "Titania's boyfriends". They had thought that the story might make Jellal come to realize that there was no way he could give up Erza to other men, that he needed to break the barriers he set up between himself and Erza, and that he should confess to Erza to give both of them a chance to find happiness together. But apparently, even Jellal felt frustrated by the story judging from the amount of wine he took in to his stomach, he was still in denial of his own feelings. He would probably not do anything to change his current relation with Erza.

And sometimes the stronger you pressured Jellal, the stronger his resistance would be. Ultear therefore decided that it was better for her not to push him too hard for the moment.

"Alright, so let's talk about something else then."

Jellal seemed to have let his guard down after the discussion on Erza's boyfriends ended and was more opened to chat with Ultear and Meredy on other random issues. But he still drank a lot that Ultear swore that he alone must have consumed 2 bottles. After the dinner, he offered to help washing the dishes but Meredy declined him and did the job instead; since it would risk breaking the dishes to let a drunken Jellal to do the washing. Ultear took her time to take a bath to refresh herself from the fatigue, which she had longed for since the last break they took. When she finished and returned to the living room, she found Jellal had fallen asleep on the sofa and the Sorcerer Weekly was on the coffee table, cover facing down. Noticing that Jellal was snoring which meant that he had fallen in a deep sleep, which was rare, Ultear decided not to wake him up but covered his body with a blanket.

It was still night time when Jellal woke up, but the dim light from the wall lamp hanged above the sofa allowed him to see his surroundings. It took him some times to realize that he had slept on the sofa in the living room. Thinking that he should go back to his bedroom to sleep, he got up from the sofa and tried to walk, but his aching head and burning stomach immediately forced him to sit down on the sofa again. He wondered what had happened to his body, but not long remembered that he had drunk a lot of wine at dinner, so it was the excessive alcohol he had taken in which made him suffering now. His mind then flashed back to the conversations held between him and his comrades during the dinner and he recalled the reason for his overdrinking.

Those _so-called_ "Titania's boyfriends" identified by the Sorcerer Weekly.

_What the hell were those guys doing with Erza, seriously? Especially that Lahar. Is it some kind of revenge he takes on me for his failure to catch me? Trying to torture me by approaching the woman I love?_

All Jellal's effort in suppressing his true feelings, in acting like he didn't mind Erza's boyfriends, was in vain under alcohol's influence, revealing a true self not even Jellal was aware of its' existence before.

For a long time, Jellal was convinced that he would be happy to see Erza being with any fine man. He never expected that seeing how other men could come close to Erza when he couldn't in reality but no longer in his imagination would be so distasteful to him. But now he knew, and he knew that he just so wished to be the man, the only man, who would be allowed to stay by Erza's side, to protect her, to hold her and to love her.

Suddenly, Jellal felt an urge to see Erza. Now. There were questions he wanted to ask and confessions he wanted to make. Things he would never do when he was under self-control and conscious of his sins. But now, he just wanted to act freely according to his feelings. The excessive alcohol had largely weakened his will to follow the rules he imposed on himself.

Ignoring a small voice in his head which told him "no", Jellal created a ghostlike self-projection. He tried his best to ignore the headache and stomach pain and closed his eyes to concentrate his attention on sending his projection to where Erza lived, Fairy Hills.

When Jellal's eyes opened, he was standing in front of a door in a corridor. He went through the door and saw an extreme long room filled with armors. He then kept going to the other end of the room where he found another door. He went thought that door and entered into a bedroom. He moved to the bedside, desperate to see _his _Erza.

However, Jellal could see no one in the bed under the dim light shed from the moon.

His mind went blank for a few seconds. Then he started inspecting every room in Erza's apartment to find her. But she was nowhere. Disappointed, he returned to Erza's bedside and stood still looking at the empty bed.

_Here, in this bed, is where you had spent many nights, isn't it Erza?_

Jellal lay down on Erza's bed, and a scent smelled like a mixture of cinnamon and honey was slowly rising up and surrounding him. _Slightly spicy yet sweet, just like Erza_. He then smiled bitterly before closing his eyes. In an instance, his projection disappeared from the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

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_Don't get close to Erza._

Everyone in the guild hall of Fairy Tail shared the same thought when they sensed the dark aura that was slowly rising around their Titania.

Erza was reading the story about _her boyfriends_ in the latest issue of Sorcerer Weekly with a serious face.

_Okay. Before everything else, how come never did I notice that the paparazzi were following me for once? _

Erza used to think that being a S-class mage, she was quite alert to what was happening around her. It made her feel really stupid now to find out that she could totally unaware of being trailed and photoed by the paparazzi, not for once, but apparently in a number of occasions.

_Alright, might be it was not that big a deal of being shot secretly by the paparazzi. As a matter of fact, I haven't done anything inappropriate with any guys which could not go public._

Erza was trying to convince herself that there was nothing to worry about even she had been taken photos by the paparazzi. But once she started reading the descriptions of the photos, her hands started shaking too. And when she reached the end of the story and found that a voting on which one of her "boyfriends" should become her husband was proposed, her whole body was shaking as well.

"What's wrong with this crazy magazine!" Erza burst out while hitting the table with her fists, still had the magazine in her grip. Her actions immediately caused some members to make the decision of leaving the guild hall to avoid becoming the victim of some possible violent acts from an angry Titania.

It was totally beyond Erza's comprehension how her marriage could become a topic of discussion in the public. Who would be her husband was none of the readers' business, right? And first and foremost, she didn't even have one boyfriend whom she could marry to! But all those sensational descriptions for the photos were practically misleading the readers to think that she was in multiple relationships with different guys.

Yes, she did spend a night with Natsu. But so did Happy, Lucy and Gray, because they had spent a night at Lucy's home together! She and Natsu were actually walking out from the doorway of Lucy's apartment house in the photo! And she was pulling Natsu's arm not because she didn't want to leave him but because she was stopping him from fighting with Gray who was cut out from the photo!

But no, Gray was not buying a gift for her! She was asked by Gray to accompany him to go to the jewelry shop to buy a gift for Juvia. Gray just wore various bracelets on her wrist to see which one looked better and the one she wore in the photo was not selected in the end.

By the way, what so mattered for sharing an umbrella with Laxus? She was on her way to the guild in a rainy day and bumped into Laxus who was also returning to the guild after completing a job. Since he didn't bring an umbrella, she offered to share her umbrella with him and go back to the guild together. It was natural that there wouldn't be much distance between them under one umbrella, no?

Granted, it might seem less natural for her to drink beer with Bacchus in a pub. But wasn't it well-known that if you wanted the Drunk Falcon to share a piece of information with you, you had to drink with him in a pub? So what she did with Bacchus was for the sole purpose of collecting information for a job she was doing but not for pleasing anyone! She definitely had no intention in developing new drinking habit! It was more than enough for Fairy Tail to have one Cana!

And oh for god's sake, she was _not_ "Ichiya's beloved" Titania! Not in the past, not now and not in the future! She actually thought that she was attacked by some unknown beast when he touched her hair that she turned and threw several swords at him. She didn't even bother to listen to him about his sudden appearance in front of her after he dodged her attacks and she just ran away as quickly as she could.

However, Erza had to admit that her and Lahar's postures shown in the last photo were misleading enough even without description. It happened when she accompanied the Master to attend the anniversary ball of the Magic Council. At the sight of the photo, she vividly remembered how she was irritated and embarrassed by the whole incident. But strangely enough, she didn't recall the feel of body contact between her and Lahar. Now realizing their closeness at that moment through the photo, she couldn't help but blushed slightly. At the same time, an uneasy feeling arose in her heart. Really, she was not familiar with this man from the Magic Council at all no matter how it looked like otherwise in the photo. She only came to know him because of that one man she loved, _Jellal Fernandes, _the fugitive whom he had arrested in the past and was chasing now.

_What will he think if he sees this photo? Will he believe that I fall for Lahar as described? Or will he believe all the descriptions written for the photos in the worst case?_

The questions popped up in Erza's head all of a sudden.

It felt so wrong. Even she and Jellal could not be together now, she wanted to keep faith in him, in their relations and in their future. Yet she couldn't stop thinking what if he read the story, then believed in it and never came back to her. She knew from Jellal's letters that he sometimes read Sorcerer Weekly. She also understood very well that he lied about a "fiancée" to keep her away from him. It seemed logical that the story would just give him another reason to hide from her.

There was no way Erza could sit back any longer. How dare this magazine tried to damage her reputation and to ruin her chance of reuniting with Jellal with an absurd story? She requipped into her Heaven Wheel armor.

"They will pay the price for this bullshit!" Erza tore up the magazine. She then stood up and looked around to find her team mates, which was not that difficult since most members had already disappeared from the guild hall. "Natsu, Gray! You two are also victims of the bullshit! So come with me to go to the office of Sorcerer Weekly!" Erza ordered two of her "boyfriends".

"I am getting fired up now!" Natsu actually didn't much care about how the magazine portrayed his relations with Erza. But he was more than happy to follow Erza's order as long as he could fight.

"Just a moment! I'm coming!" Gray had no problem to join Erza as well because he was also discontent with the story. However, he was busy at comforting a depressed Juvia now. The water mage was crying out a river after reading that story because she thought that her Gray-sama was dating her and the Titania at the same time, while she didn't dare to challenge the strongest female mage of Fairy Tail.

"Let's go Erza! We don't need that Ice Princess! I'm strong enough to help you!" Natsu urged Erza to go. As expected, such comment immediately resulted in a strike from Gray using ice-make magic.

"Want a fight now to see who's stronger, hothead?"

"Not now you two!"

Before Erza realized, she had already reacted habitually to knock Natsu and Gray out before their fight could have ever started. Looking at her "boyfriends" who were now lying on the floor unconsciously, Erza shook her head and decided that she would deal with the magazine's staff alone.

But she was disturbed again.

"Erza! Wait!" It was Lucy. Being one of Erza's closest friends, she knew what Erza was going to do and felt obliged to stop her for her own sake; even it was not easy to step in the way of an angry Erza. "A story that has been published will not disappear just because you kill...no no no, don't kill! Um...beat the magazine's staff up!"

"Lu-chan's right!" Levy was backing up Lucy, trying to prevent a disaster from happening to both Fairy Tail and the magazine's staff. "And the stronger your reaction is will only attract more attention from people to read that story!"

"Exactly Levy-chan! Erza you wouldn't want that story to spread even further, right?"

"And to think about how mischievous those reporters of Sorcerer Weekly are when it comes to Fairy Tail, they may even create more horrible stories about you and even Fairy Tail in the future in response to your revenge!"

"Not to mention that the Magic Council will probably charge you for attacking innocent civilians without legitimate reason because...um...you know...what did the reporter write wasn't against the law technically."

"So you mustn't do anything endanger the life on the magazine's staff since it will only provide another excuse for Sorcerer Weekly and the Magic Council to trash our reputation!"

"But we do understand that you have every reason to be furious at the story! Just that there must be other better ways to express your anger than attacking the magazine's staff! So Erza, would you please calm down first?"

Erza might be just as reckless as her team mates sometimes. However, she was usually rather sensible when dealing with things that involved the interest of her guild. Needless to say, she would not allow her personal issue to drag her guild though the mud. After listening to what Lucy and Levy had reasoned, she stopped rushing out the guild and requipped into her usual attire. But her pretty face which was now darkened with anger was still pretty terrible to look at that Lucy and Levy couldn't help but shivered when she glanced at them.

"So, what alternate ways do you two suggest?"

Frankly, Erza thought the alternate ways suggested by Lucy and Levy were way too gentle to accurately reflect her flaming anger: to publish a disclaimer to refute the story and to make a complaint to the Press and Publication Council. Not to mention that these ways would probably be useless in restraining Sorcerer Weekly from doing similar things in the future. Nonetheless, she accepted the goodwill of her guild mates. She would not admit that she was secretly hoping that the disclaimer could clear any possible doubts of Jellal in case he read that bullshit.

Erza let Lucy and Levy to write the disclaimer and complain letter on her behalf. She also made a promise that she wouldn't do anything harmful to the life of the magazine's staff. She then went to the request board and picked a job that was to defeat the bandits in a forest. She decided that since she couldn't kick the ass of those magazine's staff to express her dissatisfaction on them, she would give vent her anger by hitting some criminals real hard instead.

* * *

A/N: Ugh...it was much more difficult to write Erza's reactions to the magazine's story than Jellal's, I kept rewriting some parts of this chapter, feeling that my descriptions on her actions and thoughts were not convincing enough. I hope that I did finally present you an Erza who was doing what she was expected to do.

Besides, for some reasons I decided to reserve the details on what happened between Erza and Lahar for later chapter. But I will be honest with you that it's not because I'm planning on some big surprises...in fact, the truths behind other photos were rather simple. Don't know if it disappointed you. But I was trying to write Sorcerer Weekly based on how paparazzi and reporters work in real world, that is to exaggerate and twist things use imagination. So...yeah, just becoz you read it in a magazine don't make it factual.

Despite of the above, this chapter turned out to be slighlty longer than the previous ones.

Lastly, let me thank again to everyone who read/like this story! I truly never expect to receive that many positive responses, your support encourages me to work harder on this story.

Now just give me a moment to say about OVA 5. Don't read if you don't want spoilers. (Although I am doubtful how fans, esp. Jerza shippers, could resist watching it by now.)

So I was altering this chapter when the raw OVA was out, then I just stop writing and watched it for 3 times in a row. Those Jerza moments are just too addictive! Erza is soooo cute when she is clinging to Jellal like a koala! And I watched the subbed version again today, I think the translation is not very accurate, but anyways, I love how Erza and Jellal seem to enjoy their moment alone when Erza said "It's peaceful now" and Jellal replied her "Indeed", also how Erza demands Jellal not to move when her bra was disappearing just shows how deeply she trusts him! Finally how Jellal's nosebleeding...I actually feel sorry for him, I guess he has tried his best to resist an Erza who is seducing him unintentionally.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

_Dear Erza, _

_I'm now writing this letter to you in a cozy little house located by the side of a lake. Yes, I was no longer living in the snowing mountain, which I told you in my last letter. We finally destroyed the dark guild Squirrel Eyes a week ago. It really took us much more time and effort than we originally expected. So Ultear suggested us taking a break after completing the hard work. I've to admit that this place she found is pretty good for a break. Not only because it's far from the crowd, but also because of its scenery. A lot of maple trees are planted in this area and all the leaves have already turned red now. It's amazingly beautiful. _

_You seem to have taken break recently too. I've read that you were going out with some guys. It's good for you to explore some new relationships. I'm sure you will find the man you deserve very soon. _

Jellal had stopped writing the letter to Erza around half of hour ago. He didn't really want to mention her story in Sorcerer Weekly in the letter, but he couldn't think of other things to write because his mind was still pretty much occupied with that story. So he tried to put it in a less sensational but more neutral way and to give her some encouraging comments.

But then he couldn't continue the writing any longer.

_You're such a hypocrite, Jellal. That's not what you've been thinking when you went to Fairy Hills last night._

Jellal put down the pen and leaned his back on the chair, letting out a sigh. His mind flashed back to what he tried to do last night. He still didn't know how to feel about his failure to see Erza.

It might be that he should feel relieved because he didn't hurt Erza _again_. Even if he confessed to her and received a positive response, he would reject her once more like how he did on the beach when he sobered up because, how could he bear the sin of dragging a righteous person like Erza into his darkness? He had to stick to his "punishment".

Or should he feel disappointed instead? He had lied to Erza in many different situations before either for his own sake or for her benefits. Last night was such a unique occasion for him to finally feel the necessity to reveal his heart to her without any cover-up. Yet, the opportunity simply passed him before he could even open his mouth because she was not there to listen to him. He didn't know if he would ever act that boldly again to ignore his sins and regrets to tell her his true feelings.

The only thing he felt sure about was that he would definitely strictly discipline himself not to overdrink from now no to avoid any other thoughtless action in the future.

Then there came several knocks on the door which caught Jellal's attention. He went to open his bedroom's door and saw Meredy standing outside.

"What's up Meredy?"

"We're going out to explore the area around, wanna join?

Jellal didn't reply immediately because he was considering whether he should finish writing his letter to Erza first.

"Come on Jellal! You haven't left this house since we moved in the day before! I heard that the scenery is beautiful in this area and it's such a waste not to go sightseeing a bit!" Meredy persuaded Jellal.

Jellal thought that Meredy had her points. Besides, it might help clearing his mind by talking a walk.

"Okay, count me in but let me change my clothes first."

"Sure, take your time! Ultear is still in her room changing clothes anyway. You know she won't be fast."

After twenty minutes, the three members of Crime Socière departed for their little exploration in the forest. Since it was break time, they had put on causal wear instead of their signature uniform. Jellal wore a turtleneck light grey sweater, a mid-length dark jacket with hood and black pants. He also covered the lower half of his face with a face mask to hide his tattoo as a precautionary measure. Ultear wore a dark purple pullover and black pants with a scarf tied around her shoulders causally. Meredy was in a red long sweater with leggings and a short-length brown jacket.

Everything went well in the beginning. They took a walk alongside the lake appreciating the red maple leaves dancing with the wind above them. Then they decided to take a path which could lead them to a hilltop to see the whole view of the lake. But before they could reach the destination, the simple sightseeing turned to something Crime Socière had not planned on doing during their break.

* * *

Erza wondered when her bad luck would end.

It all started with her being slandered as some kind of shameless woman who dated several guys at one time, when she was definitely not, in a very popular magazine. It was very unlucky for her that she could not take revenge on the magazine for the sake of her guild. Alternatively, she had picked a job hoping to spend her anger on beating up some bastards. She really didn't expect to go through a series of unpleasant events on her way to meet the client, which only made her situation more miserable.

Firstly, people passing by her on the streets seemed to always drop her some meaningful glances or suspicious smiles which were by no mean friendly in her eyes. Then a supposedly two-hour train ride turned out taking her six hours because the rail was broken. When the train finally arrived at its destination, it was midnight already. Couldn't find any accommodation available near the train station, nor could she take any transport to go to other places since the running hours were over, she had to spend a night at the train station. The next day, she tried to hire someone who could ride her to the town located at the edge of the forest because she didn't want to waste her magic power in driving the magical vehicle. But no one was willing to do so because of the bandits in that area. It left her no choice but to rent a magical vehicle to go to the town by herself. At a crossroad, she picked the wrong direction and only found out her fault when reaching the dead-end of the road which was a cliff. After returning to the right path to go to the town, she was greeted by a heavy shower. The road became muddy that she had to slow down the speed of the magical vehicle.

She finally reached the town after spending near 20 hours which quintupled the time she originally planned. She was hungry and tired and it was lunch time already. So she decided to find something to eat first before meeting the client. She was glad that her lunch was not disturbed by any unexpected events. She just wished that everything would turn out fine from now on.

After lunch, she went to the town hall to meet the person who sent out the request, who was the Head of the town's Security Unit.

"Miss, how can I help you?" The guard at the reception asked Erza.

So Erza explained the reason of her visit. The guard stared at her with uncertainty as if he couldn't comprehend what she had just said, which gave her a bad feeling.

"Oh, yes, the bandits, of course." The guard replied her after few seconds. Then he directed her to the waiting area outside the office of the Head of Security Unit. Erza was signaled to enter the office after ten minutes of waiting.

"Welcome Miss Scarlet, I am Francois Lachat, Head of the Security Unit of this town. Please take a seat." The Head was a tall and muscle man in his early forties. He extended his hand to Erza.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Lachat. Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail." Erza shook Mr. Lachat's hand before sitting down on the chair as instructed.

"It's my real pleasure to have you, one of the strongest mages in Fiore, to come to help us to defeat the bandits. But," Mr. Lachat smiled at Erza apologetically. "I am sorry to inform you that someone had already arrested the bandits for us in this morning."

Erza was dumfounded. She had overcome so many obstacles to come to the town for the job but was now told that she was not needed. It not only meant that she had wasted 20 hours of time and effort, but also meant that she could not beat up the bandits to release the anger built up inside her since she read her story in Sorcerer Weekly. She felt that her anger was now swirling inside her body.

So her bad luck hadn't ended yet.

"I am truly sorry for the time you wasted on coming here. But maybe you could stay here for a few days to take a break instead? The scenery nearby is beautiful." Mr. Lachat tried to comfort Erza noticing her expressionless face.

"It-it's okay. Thank you...for your kind suggestion, Mr. Lachat." Erza answered Mr. Lachat as calm as she could. "May I know…had you invited another guild to do the job? Who caught the bandits exactly?"

"No, we had only sent request to Fairy Tail, and…" Mr. Lachat paused and looked a bit embarrassed. "we didn't know who caught the bandits."

"You didn't know? How come?" Erza was truly surprised by Mr. Lachat's answer.

"A woman dropped a letter to our guard at the reception this morning. The letter reported that the bandits had been defeated and gave details of the bandits and instructions on how to find them. Although the action of the woman and her letter were quite suspicious, I sent a team to go to the forest to have a search according to the instructions and turned out they found the bandits all tied to the trees. But those who caught the bandits had disappeared already. I only managed to know based on the testimony given by the bandits that they were a group of three people, a young lady with long pink hair, a raven-haired woman in her late-twenties and a man who wore a face mask and a hood to hide his features except for his eyes."

The composition of this group of people sounded _a bit_ familiar to Erza.

"Could you do me a favor to allow me to talk to the bandits, Mr. Lachat?"

* * *

A/N: All your reviews for the last chapter were big encouragement to me which helped clearing some of my doubts on how should I write. Truly appreciate for your time to share your views. To those who followed and favorited this story, my heartfelt thank you to you too!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

Erza woke up feeling the cool breeze caressing her face. Opened her eyes and looked out, she saw beam of sunlight outside the cave. So it was already morning. She got up from the blanket on which she was lying and stretched herself with a yawn, before starting picking up her things. When finished, she left the cave and headed to a small-sized waterfall which she had visited last night, located five minutes of walk away from the cave.

Requipping out from her cloths, Erza walked into the pool formed under the waterfall. The water was very cool, but refreshing, which seemed to be able to awaken her every cell. Feeling satisfied with the miracle work of the cool water on her body, she looked up into the light blue sky. It was bright and clear.

_Such a beautiful day. _She thought. _Could this be a good sign for my search today? _

Erza started the search for the three people who did her job of catching the bandits yesterday after leaving the Town Hall.

Upon hearing Mr. Lachat's description of the appearance of the group, Erza immediately suspected that they might be Crime Sorcière. With special approval from Mr. Lachat, she was allowed to ask the bandits about the group. But unfortunately, the bandits couldn't provide much information to prove her right. They couldn't tell her how those three people looked like in details because they were quickly defeated and lost their consciousness. They vaguely remembered what those three dressed but the descriptions didn't sound like Crime Sorcière. They had no idea on the kind of magic used by the group to defeat them. The only piece of relevant information was that the raven-haired woman used a crystal ball to launch her attack. So this woman could be Ultear, but honestly the evidence was not very strong. If she wanted to verify her thought, she could only stay to investigate by herself.

Erza did question herself whether it was worth the time and effort to find the group before making the final decision. For one, the group could be not Crime Sorcière at all. For two, even if they were, she doubted that she could trace their location successfully as they were skillful in hiding. It was also possible that they had already moved on to their next destination.

But on a second thought, Erza felt that if she left the town without doing anything, it would just make all the sufferings she went through on the way coming to the town even more meaningless than they already were. And she hadn't forgotten the reason for her to pick the job and came to this town in the first place. With all kind of emotions piling up inside her without any way of venting out since she was enraged by the magazine's story, she felt herself like a balloon with too much air blew in and was ready to explode any time if she didn't find something to do to release the pressure.

And to be honest to herself, Erza had also taken her desire to meet the blue-haired male member of Crime Sorcière into consideration. Could she really by-pass the possibility, no matter how low it was, of seeing the man she was missing?

That was when Erza made up her mind. She would just try her luck once more. She decided to search for the group in the forest because it was the place where they caught the bandits that she might find some traces they left in it. Besides, if the group was Crime Sorcière, the forest seemed to be the most suitable place nearby for their hiding.

After entering the forest, Erza took a hill path to start the searching. She would play attention to caves and evidences of previous tent set up or campfire along the path. But she found nothing useful for identifying or tracking the group. She couldn't help but feel disappointed at the result; although she knew that she shouldn't hold her hope too high. It was near sundown when she reached the hilltop. Standing at the top and taking in the magnificent view of a greenish lake and its' surrounding under a sky painted with the colors of red and purple in front of her, she was thankful for how the beauty of nature could lift up her mood miraculously.

Before the sun entirely sunk below the horizon, Erza walked down the path and went to a cave at the hillside which she had searched previously. She decided to spend the night in the wild instead of returning to the town so that she could save travelling time and restart her search once she woke up.

And now, after taking the cold morning bath which had totally awaken her from any drowsiness, Erza felt that she was ready to continue the search from yesterday. Leaving the waterfall, she walked down to the foot of the hill and began exploring the forest in hope of meeting the people she looked for.

* * *

Leaning against a huge tree trunk, Jellal placed a hand on his left chest trying to calm down his suddenly racing heartbeat.

_This couldn't be my hallucination, right?_

Hesitantly, Jellal turned his head to see if the woman who was walking in the field of white cosmos flowers behind his hiding place a minute ago was still there.

Yes, she was.

Jellal couldn't see her face because she was walking to the opposite direction from his hiding place that he could only see her back. But that head of long scarlet hair, which was now dancing vividly in the breeze, was enough for him to recognize her identity.

She had to be Erza _Scarlet_. There was no way he would mistake the color of her hair based on which he got the idea for her last name.

Jellal continued observing Erza's move while feeling how ridiculous things could be some times. She was not in Fairy Hills when his self-projection visited her, wanting to meet her so eagerly. But now, she suddenly appeared in front of his eyes when he was taking a leisure walk in the forest for the only purpose of killing the free time of his break, totally unprepared to meet her.

_Why are you here? Do you come here for a job? Or for a vacation? Are you alone? Where are you team mates? Or boyfriends?_

Jellal wished that he could now run to Erza to get the answers from her month for the questions he had now and also for those he failed to ask when he visited Fairy Hills.

But he just couldn't move his legs to step out from his hiding place.

_Don't you dare interfere in her life again. You don't have such right._ _She's not yours._ He heard his voice of reason spoke in his head. _You know she probably has a boyfriend now. _

He clenched his fist and hit hardly on the tree truck.

And it was the moment when Erza suddenly stopped walking and turned her head to look at Jellal's direction. Jellal instinctively turned his head away from Erza and pressed his back tightly on the tree trunk, making sure not to expose himself to Erza.

Jellal stood motionless for several minutes before turning his head again to look at the flower field. Erza was now further far away from his hiding place than before. So she didn't notice him and continued walking to the other side of the flower field.

_That's right, just leave her alone and let her move on without you for her own sake. You will only cause her troubles by appearing in front of her._

But he couldn't take his eyes off her. He kept watching how her scarlet hair fluttered in the air following every step she took, contrasted beautifully with the light blue sky, the green grassland and the white cosmos flowers, until her figure could no longer be seen.

Jellal then took his steps to leave. His heartbeat had now returned to normal. But his heart had not, and might never will. For no matter how close he was to that missing part of his heart, it just seemed that he could never grab it.

* * *

A/N: Please don't be angry at Jellal (and me) for his action or non-action. Jellal is a strong-willed person in my opinion, so he won't act against his rule easily. But I promise you that he will meet Erza in the next chapter.

Regarding my writing, I know that there were mistakes/errors which I was unaware of, although I already referred to dictionary quite a lot in my writing process trying to improve the accuracy of my English. So if you spot any mistakes which you think I should correct them, please feel free to point them out by PM me. Thanks!

Lastly, all reviews, favorites and follows are greatly appreciated!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and responded!

* * *

When Jellal returned to the house, it was already a quarter pass four in the afternoon. Ultear and Meredy hadn't come back yet. That meant they had already left for over five hours.

The two ladies had gone to the town again this morning to buy food but also to do some shopping. Jellal understood that shopping was always one of women's most favorite activities. But shopping with women was an activity he would want to avoid as much as possible like most of the men did. After spending his morning on rewriting the letter to Erza, cleaning his bedroom and making lunch, he found that he had nothing more to do in the afternoon. That was why he made the decision to go to the forest to continue the exploration interrupted by the bandits yesterday after his lunch.

Jellal slumped down in the sofa.

_I better not go to the forest again during the rest of the break._

He had chosen to keep his distance from Erza, so he shouldn't take the risk of being found out by her in the forest in case she was still staying in there. Besides, he wasn't so sure after the bandits who tried but failed to rob him and the woman whom he loved yet couldn't approach, who would be the next to surprise him if he stepped into that forest again. He wouldn't be so delighted if he was introduced to someone's boyfriends, although it would still be much better than a fatal encounter with the rune knights. But in the worst case, he would imagine to meet someone who belonged to both categories.

Jellal unwillingly turned his gaze to the coffee table, on which a certain magazine was placed. Straightening up and letting out a heavy sigh, he then grabbed that magazine and flipped to the story of "Titania's boyfriends" again.

_These boyfriends still annoy you that you want to get rid of them from her side, huh? And that desire of claiming her as yours is not vanishing even though you know you're not allowed to do so? Then would you rather want her to live alone simply because you find it disturbing to see her being with any other man except yourself? If no, why can't you control your emotions to peacefully accept that she will date a guy, one of those reported in the magazine or not, and then they will get married and have children one day? Why keep on torturing yourself with someone you can't have but not end your suffering by letting go of her from your life? Don't you realize that you need to move on without her too, just like how you let her move on without you?_

Jellal threw the magazine at the coffee table, having enough of those tough questions asked in his head. He then propped his chin on his right hand, elbow resting on the knee.

"You really get too much free time in this break to think about her." Jellal whispered to himself mockingly. "And even got a chance to see her from distance."

But when the break came to the end after three days, everything should return to normal. He would be too occupied with the dark guilds to think about his relation with Erza. He wouldn't have time to follow the new development of the story of "Titania's boyfriends" when he was busy at travelling from one place to another. He would write her once in a while to let her know that he was safe but he wouldn't get her reply anyway. They would continue to live their own life far apart from each other, carefully not to cross their paths. Then someday, he might find out that she had built a family with someone, but he had learnt to simply smile knowing she was happy and then lived his life as usual unaffected by the news.

Jellal suddenly hoped that the break could just end now. But that was impossible taking his comrades' will in consideration. And time would definitely not pass faster in the coming three days. If anything, he would only find it passing even slower than before. As if to prove his assumption, he looked at the clock. Only half hour had passed since his return to the house, but he actually thought that he must have lost in his thoughts for at least an hour. It made him shake his head with a helpless smile on his face.

He then considered what he should do next. He was a bit tired but didn't feel sleepy that he didn't want to go to bed. He actually got used to only sleep for a short period of time since he was enslaved in the Tower of Heaven. It might be that he could take a bath to get rid of the fatigue. Making up his mind, he got the changing clothes and went into the bathroom.

Jellal heard a small sound of the door being opened from outside when he was putting on the clothes after the bathing. After a while, someone knocked on the bathroom's door.

"Are you inside, Jellal?" It was Ultear's voice.

"Yes!" Jellal shouted back. "I just finished bathing. You need to use the bathroom?"

"No, that's okay, take your time. Just make sure you dress up properly when you come out."

"Well…okay." Jellal answered but felt strange about Ultear's reminder. What made her suddenly think that he would _not_ dress up properly in front of her and Meredy? She knew that he was not like the man whom she treated as her little brother. Nonetheless, he did check on his clothes twice before opening the bathroom's door.

"So how was—" Jellal was walking into the living room when he tried to ask Ultear and Meredy how their day spent in the town was. But his question came to a stop in the middle when he noticed there was another person in the living room. His heart skipped a beat and then eyes widened in shock as he realized who this person was. Before he could open his mouth to say hi, the person greeted him.

"Long time no see, Jellal."

Jellal took in a deep breath.

"Yes, Erza, long time no see."

There was no way Jellal could hide from Erza now. In fact, he found himself gazing at Erza's face. After more than a year, he finally saw her face to face once again, not in his imagination or in the magazine, and not her back only like when he saw her in the forest. Her beauty was still something magical which could melt his heart in an instant, and her big brown eyes seemed to have the power of locking his soul in them.

It was equally difficult for Erza to take her eyes off Jellal's face. She was so happy to finally get her luck back to be able to meet him after more than a year. Her heart started to beat at a strange rhythm when seeing how he was as handsome as she always remembered, and she felt lost in his golden-green orbs which were now focusing on her.

"That's all? No more things to say? Or you two are communicating via telepathy now, huh?" Seeing how the two lost words in each other's presence, Ultear didn't miss the chance to tease them.

Jellal immediately cleared his throat to speak.

"So Erza…how did you meet Ultear and Meredy?"

"I bumped into them when I was on my way back to the town after sightseeing in the forest."

_So she is on vacation? Alone?_ Jellal thought. But before he could clarify with Erza, Meredy spoke.

"So we were on our way back here when we saw Erza. We invited her over for dinner because, you know, we don't usually have the chance to meet a friend in such casual occasion!"

"Oh by the way, we will need some time to prepare for the dinner. How about you take Erza for a walk at the nearby forest before dinner, Jellal?" Ultear suggested.

_Ultear, you've overdone._ Jellal frowned a little. He really didn't see it as a good idea to spend time with Erza alone considering that he was still struggling to control his feelings over her.

"Can't we stay in the house? I've just cleaned up myself. Moreover, I had took a walk at the nearby forest in this afternoon and don't feel like repeating what I just did two hours ago."

"Erza wants to explore around, can't you do her a favor as our guest?" _You're so stubborn, Jellal!_ Ultear started to loss her patience. "If you don't want to talk a walk again, then take Erza to go boating on the lake. Don't tell me that you went boating as well in the afternoon! And you can clean up yourself once again when you come back if you like."

"It's okay, Ultear." Erza didn't want to hear another rejection from Jellal. It hurt. "It's fine with me if Jellal don't want to go out. We can still have a chat here." She then turned to Jellal. "I'm sorry to have bothered you."

"No, you didn't bother me." Jellal responded quickly.

He could tell that Erza was trying hard to hide her disappointment at his response to Ultear's suggestion, noticing how she tried but failed to smile at him. At the same time, he could feel that Ultear was giving him a deadly glare at his back.

"Let me show you the lake." Jellal gave up his resistance to the two most influential women in his life. "Just give me five minutes to change the clothes, and then we can go."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

The sun had begun to sink when Jellal and Erza headed to the lake.

Neither one spoke a word on the way, as if both had agreed on sticking to the rule of "Silence is Golden". Jellal kept his head down, hided his hands in the pockets of his mid-length dark jacket and walked a step ahead of Erza, leading the way. Erza was walking at Jellal's right side and a step behind him. Peeking at the man's profile from time to time, Erza wondered what he was thinking while her mind flashed back to her encounter with his two comrades.

_Erza couldn't believe her luck when she caught a glimpse of pink hair waving between the trees around 50 meters away from her. She immediately speeded up her pace to walk closer to her target and quickly realized that there was another person accompanied the pink-headed. She saw the two figures turned right at a crossroad and so she followed. But when she reached the crossroad and looked at her right side, she could see no one there. A puzzled expression climbed up her face and naturally she turned to look at her left side instead. _

_"Erza?"_

_Erza nearly jumped out of shock, not expecting to hear someone calling her from behind. She turned around and at the same time summoned a sword in her hand. _

_"Hey, calm down! Weren't you the one who was following us just a moment ago? Don't you think we should be the ones who were being scared?" The one who just called her name spoke again, teasingly._

_The defensive look on Erza's face disappeared and the sword in her hand vanished at the moment she saw the two familiar faces in front of her. _

_"I'm truly sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I was just trying to confirm your identity." Erza apologized while smiling with relief. "And I'm really glad to see you two again, Ultear, Meredy." _

_"I'm glad to see you again too, Erza! What a coincidence for us to meet in this place!" Meredy spoke with slight excitement. _

_"It's truly a surprise to see you here, Erza." Ultear noticed that Erza was gazing around when Meredy greeted her. It was apparent that Erza was looking for the member of Crime Socière who was not present at the moment but Ultear decided to explain to her later. "What brings you here?"_

_Erza skipped the part of her reading her story in the Sorcerer Weekly and told the two that she randomly picked a job which was to defeat the bandits in the forest but some people had done the job before her arrival. She then explained that she found out it could be Crime Socière who caught the bandits and was told that the scenery in the area was beautiful; she therefore came to the forest to see if she would have the chance to meet old friends while sightseeing. _

_Ultear also explained to Erza what Crime Socière was doing in the forest and confirmed her that it was them who caught the bandits accidentally. When finished, she invited Erza for dinner._

_"That way you can meet an old friend of yours and reach the goal which leads you to this forest." Ultear smirked, and noticed a slight brush coming into Erza's cheeks. "But I have something to ask you before we go."_

_"What do you want to ask?"_

_"Do you have a boyfriend now?"_

_"No!" Erza nearly yelled out her reply. Her face was further reddened, not because of shyness but because of nervous. She could sense what Ultear was going to say next._

_"Then I guess it's a good news for your old friend who got the fidgets after reading the latest issue of Sorcerer Weekly." Ultear crossed her arms and looked amusingly at Erza. "You know what he had read in that magazine, right?" _

_Erza simply nodded. Two different feelings were now combating to dominate her heart: the comfort of knowing that man was still concerned about her and the worry of him believing that she already had a boyfriend._

_"You probably want to talk to him as soon as possible now, so let's go!"_

After twenty minutes of walk and taking a path between the shrubs, Jellal and Erza arrived at the lakeshore where several boats were moored to an old and crude wooden platform which allowed no more than four people to stand on it. Crime Socière discovered this spot the day before when exploring the area alongside the lake. Noticing both the platform and the boats were party cobwebbed, they judged that no one had come to the spot for some time, probably due to its' hidden location, and had talked about coming back for boating before the end of their vacation.

Jellal swiftly jumped into one of the boats. When Erza prepared to follow Jellal's action, she was stopped.

"Erza, you wait there, let me have a check first." Jellal finally broke the silence between the two.

After confirming that the boat was safe and clearing the cobwebs, Jellal held out his hand to Erza who was standing on the platform.

"Be careful."

Erza took Jellal's hand and got on the boat too, caused the boat to sway. They then sat down face to face, one at each end of the boat, and Jellal started rowing the boat to the heart of the lake.

As the sun was slowly disappearing below the horizon, the color of the sky was also gradually turning from light blue to a mixture of orange, yellow and rose red, which could compete with the flaming red maple leaves at the lakeside.

"It's beautiful." Erza whispered with eyes fixing at the scenery around her, amazed at the lively colors of the nature. The view of the lake she saw from the hilltop was like a still picture, but she found that everything of the same scenery was so vivid when it was appreciated on a boat in the lake at such close distance.

"It's even more beautiful in the daytime." Jellal commented and had a glimpse of Erza. Although he agreed that the complexity of the color of red presented in the nature was miraculous, in his eyes no other shades of red could outmatch the amazing scarlet of Erza's tresses. "You will be astonished at how the blue sky, the red leaves and the green lake can contrast while complementing with each other perfectly at the same time."

"Sounds really attractive." Erza turned her gaze to Jellal. "Maybe you could show me tomorrow?"

To this, Jellal only smiled but said nothing before averting his eyes from Erza.

"Jellal."

Erza tried to get Jellal to look at her by calling him. It sometimes made her feel uncomfortable when he avoided looking at her as if she was someone he didn't' want to see. She kind of sensed the reason why he was doing it to her again. But she really needed him to face her now as she was going to start a conversation about them.

Erza had not really considered what to say to Jellal before meeting Ultear. She simply wanted to see him. It was after her encounter with Ultear that she started thinking seriously what she wanted to tell Jellal, and she thought of lots of things. She remembered how her every reunion with Jellal was always so brief and shadowed by the complicate situation they were in, that they never really had the chance to talk about themselves. And even they got the chance to share their feelings, their meeting only ended embarrassingly with a lie. Erza could see that she was going to have another brief reunion with Jellal, but this time it seemed that there was no other issue involved except their own business. She came to think that the unplanned meeting between her and Jellal might be a second chance for them to open up themselves to each other since that private moment on the beach, and knew in her heart that she should value such chance because it was difficult to tell when they could meet up again after this. But for things to work out, it was clear to her that she needed to clear a certain misunderstanding Jellal had on her first.

Jellal lifted up his head hearing his name on Erza's lips, and saw the determination expressed in that pair of brown orbs which was so typically Erza when their eyes met each other.

"I don't have any boyfriend."

Jellal stopped rowing the oars and eyes widened, so surprised to hear Erza bringing up such topic out of nowhere that he couldn't figure out instantly what made Erza feel the need to tell him her relationship status.

"Erza…why you-"

"That story about my boyfriends printed in Sorcerer Weekly, _is not true_." Erza said her words clearly and firmly.

Jellal stayed expressionless as Erza's words were sinking into his heart. But at the same time, he could felt some sort of relief started spreading from his heart to his whole body, which made him want to smile. But then again, his guilty self reminded him that it was none of his business whether Erza had a boyfriend or not, which stopped the smile from surfacing on his face just in time. Instead, he started questioning again why Erza would bring up this topic to him.

_Why she wanted to clarify it with me? How did she know that I read that story? Wait…it must be Ultear who told her. Dame it._

Jellal realized that he could no longer run away from answering those questions he asked himself just around an hour ago. He had to answer them right now, right in front of Erza. He took a deep breath before opening his month to speak.

"The magazine should not make up false story about you, for this I do feel sorry for you, Erza. But there's no need for you to explain your relationship status to me." Jellal broke the eye contact with Erza by turning his head to the side. "It doesn't really concern me."

_It's time to let go and move on._

"Not concerns…_you_?"

Erza narrowed her eyes at Jellal. She found it hard to believe that it was how Jellal truly thought. No. He must realize how much her relationship status concerned him. He was just trying to distant himself from her, like he always did. Erza couldn't help but felt a bit annoyed by Jellal's response when all she tried to do was to open up herself to him.

"So even if I choose Ichiya as my boyfriend, you're fine with it?"

Jellal cast a sidelong glance at Erza. _Why Ichiya among all those guys? Did you intentionally mention him knowing that I dislike that short man? He's really no match to you. _

"I'm in no position to comment on your choice. But I think you deserve someone better, like..." Jellal searched his memory for a man to name and _that photo_ of Erza lying her back on someone's chest arose in his mind.

"Lahar." Jellal could literally taste the bitterness of this name in his month when he said it. "He's a decent man, and you two look perfect together in that photo."

"You're talking nonsense Jellal!" Erza's voice was trembling. So her worries came true. That story just strengthened Jellal's belief that she should be with any other man except him. "That photo…that moment…it was only an accident!"

* * *

A/N: As always, thanks to everyone who read this story and all reviews you gave are very valuable to me.

I know that some of you look forward to the lake trip. I basically planned it for the two to spend some private time to sort out their issue, and to prevent Jellal from running away from Erza XD. So from now on, the story will focus on the conversation held between the two, which is a bit different from the previous chapters which focus on their thoughts and actions. But I found that it's more difficult to keep them IC when writing them talk.

And I really want to give you the encounter between Erza and Lahar in this chapter but decided against it, because I don't want to put two flashbacks in one chapter and it will make this chapter too long. So, may I have your patience again and I will try my best to complete the next chapter as soon as possible.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

_When Makarov and Erza arrived at the annual ball of the Magic Council, guests were all busy at chatting, having a drink or dancing, waiting for the gala dinner to start in a half hour. But before they could take part in the activities of their fellow mages, they had to greet the host first. So they looked around to find the host and it was Erza who spotted him._

_"Master, Chairman is over there." Erza whispered, pointing her finger to her right. The Magic Council Chairman Gran Doma, accompanied by Lahar who stood behind him, was talking to a Master of another guild. But their conversation soon ended and the Master walked away. Makarov and Erza then approached the Chairman._

_"Chairman, good evening." Makarov greeted Doma with his signature grin while holding out his hand. "Thank you for inviting us to this grand annual event of the Magic Council!"_

_"Master Makarov, good evening." Doma replied with a stern face and shook Makarov's hand. "It's great to see you in this ball. I guess this is one of those rare occasions where I don't have to listen to your report on the damages caused by your guild's members."_

_"Ho ho ho, my brats were just too eager to get their jobs done that sometimes they didn't notice what was happening at their surroundings!" Makarov defended his "children" as usual, not taking Doma's openly displayed dissatisfactions at Fairy Fail to heart seriously. "And let's drop this topic since I think you prefer not to discuss about what my guild did in this ball."_

_Doma gave Makarov a sardonic smile, before turning his gaze to Erza. _

_"Miss Scarlet. Nice to meet you."_

_"Nice to meet you too, Chairman." Erza bowed her head to show respect to Doma._

_"I heard people praising you a lot, especially after the Grand Magic Games, and many fellow mages view you as a role model."_

_"It's an overpraise. I still have a lot to learn to become a role model."_

_"You're just being humble. Lahar." Hearing his name, Lahar took a step forward. "You've meet Miss Scarlet before, if I remember correctly."_

_"Yes, Chairman." Lahar looked at Erza, and their eyes met. Something unsettling hit Erza suddenly, but she refused to turn her gaze away._

_"Miss Scarlet is such an outstanding mage and woman. How about you invite Miss Scarlet for a dance on behalf of the Magic Council to show our appreciation?"_

_"Thank you but I think there's no such need." Makarov replied immediately trying to protect Erza, knowing there were some unpleasant encounters between Erza and Lahar before due to a certain blue-haired mage. "Erza is not good at –"_

_"Is Miss Scarlet afraid of facing our Captain for some reasons?" Doma cut in before Makarov could finish his sentence with the last word "dancing". "Could it be that Miss Scarlet has done something improper which will make her the target of our Captain?" _

_"Excuse me, Chairman, but I've no idea on what you were implying in your question." Erza decided to speak up for herself, not wanting her Master be further dragged in her own trouble. "There is no reason for me to avoid Mr. Lahar. In fact, it's my honor to have the chance to dance with the reputable Captain of the Magic Council."_

_"Erza…"_

_"Master, I believe other Guild Masters have been waiting eagerly to meet you, so please don't wait for me and feel free to go to meet them. I'll join you after the dance."_

_Makarov could only nod in agreement with what Erza said, knowing his "daughter" wanted to tackle the issue by herself. _

_Lahar then held out his hand to Erza. "Miss Scarlet, shall we?"_

_Erza placed her hand on Lahar's and followed him to the dance floor. When Lahar placed his right hand on her back near her waist, Erza could feel her body stiffened but she still managed to rest her left hand at Lahar's upper right arm, allowing Lahar to lead the dance. They didn't exchange a word for a while, until Lahar felt the need to talk to Erza so as to end the awkward silence between them._

_"I would like to apologize to you, Miss Scarlet, if dancing with me has caused you any discomfort." _

_"No, you don't have to. I'm fine."_

_"So it seems that my worry is unnecessary." _

_Erza didn't give further comment, preferred keeping her conversation with Lahar as short as possible. But apparently, Lahar thought differently because he soon spoke again after noticing that Erza had no intention in responding to his previous statement. _

_"Regarding what Chairman said earlier about you being a role model for many mages, I totally agree with him. You've actually become an idol of the general public after the Grand Magic Games."_

_"I think it's an overstatement to call me a role model or an idol. I'm just an ordinary mage in a wonderful guild."_

_"Overstatement and ordinary? Certainly not." Lahar expressed his disagreement with Erza with a sneering tone. "Your popularity in the Fiore Kingdom is evident. Even some of my subordinates have admiration for you. So there's something I would like to remind you considering your increasing influence among fellow mages, if you don't mind."_

_Erza didn't think that Lahar would drop the topic even she told him that she did mind listening to his lecturing, so she didn't even bother to reply but simply frowned to show her discontent._

_"It would be better for you to pay extra attention on everything you do because your action will more or less affect those people who look up to you." As Erza had expected, Lahar gave his advices anyway ignoring her disapproving look. "For example, doing things like shielding or hiding information about some wanted criminals will not only mean that you violate the law, but also mean that you set a bad example to your followers and disappoint people who support you."_

_Erza uncontrollably tightened her grip on Lahar's arm as Lahar's words struck her. It took all her willpower to suppress her anger so that she wouldn't slap Lahar right then and there for acting like he had the right to tell her what she should do._

_"Mr. Lahar, I've heard your words and I think I should go back to my Master's side to greet other Guild Masters now. So would you please excuse me." _

_Erza roughly pull back her hands from Lahar's and turned around sharply. It might be that her actions were a bit too violent; one of her high heels suddenly broke. She lost her balance and fell back, but she didn't hit the floor. She felt her back falling on something firm but not hard and her shoulders being grasped by something soft and warm. She turned her head to the back and then realized who saved her._

_It was Lahar who caught Erza by grabbing her shoulders just in time and to let her back falling onto his chest instead on the floor. _

_"Are you okay?"_

_"Y-yeah." Erza quickly regained her balance, feeling extremely embarrassed by her own clumsiness "Thank you." _

_Didn't want to talk to Lahar further, Erza took off her broken high heels and dashed to the bathroom to requip another pair of shoes._

* * *

Erza let out a sigh after recounting the unpleasant encounter between her and Lahar to Jellal.

"So don't you say again Lahar is perfect for me, and I don't want to have any contact with him in the future. The meetings between me and other guys showed in those photos were all twisted by the magazine too, and I don't see any possibility of having myself romancing with any one of them." Erza said seriously before smiling faintly at Jellal. "In this world, there is only one person who deserves my love. It's –"

"It's my fault, Erza." Jellal interrupted Erza. Knowing the truth didn't give him any relief. The despiteful attitude Lahar held towards Erza made him angry, but the fact that Erza was offended because of him made him feel distressed. She shouldn't choose him even she didn't harbour feelings for those guys. She still had the chance to meet someone she liked in the future. "I put you through so many difficult times in the past, and I'm the primary cause for the Magic Council to give you the hard time. So nothing has changed. I should be the one whom you should not have any contact with in the future."

"It's you, Jellal." Erza said calmly, not allowing herself to be distracted by Jellal's attempt to put the blame on himself for what happened to her in the annual ball. She had the feeling that if she didn't tell him her true feelings now, he would loss all his faith in their relationship and hide from her forever. "You're the only one who deserves my love."

"But I've a fiancée."Jellal blurt out without a second thought.

And he immediately wanted to slap himself for repeating this stupidest lie in his life. Why couldn't he come up with some better excuses to decline Erza?

Erza widened her eyes and took in a deep breath hearing that familiar statement again. But she only allowed herself to freeze for a few seconds. She rose from her seat, took one step forward and kneed down in front of Jellal. The boat swayed because of her movement, and surprise was written all over Jellal's face due to her reaction. Erza placed her hands on Jellal's, moved her fingers along his to loosen his grip on the handles of the oars. She held his hands between her palms and lifted her head to look into his eyes with all sincerity.

"I've revealed my true heart to you, Jellal. Could you be honest with yourself for this one time and tell me your true feelings?"

Could he? Or should he?

"Our feelings have no influence on the circumstances we're in now, you should know that, Erza. How I feel will not change the fact that I'm a fugitive and you're a member of a legal guild. So don't chase after something that's unreachable."

Erza shook her head.

"I'm not trying to change the circumstances. I'm just trying to find our answer." Her grasp on his hands tightened. "I used to think that we already found it after what happened on the beach. But…no. It was only an illusion built upon our denial and pretense, which prevents us from finding the truth and solution." She looked at him longingly. "I want to know our real answer. I want to find out the right direction we should take…"

Jellal pulled his hands out from Erza's grasp. Despite his effort in hardening his heart, the woman in front of him somehow managed to soften it. Wrapping his arms around Erza's shoulders, he pressed her against his chest for an embrace. In return, Erza slid her hands to Jellal's back, holding him tight.

"I wish that I could find the answer too." Lowering his hand, Jellal whispered into Erza's ear.

The answer to his atonement, to his punishment, to his love and to all the questions he asked in the past few days about what he should do with his relation to Erza. Jellal still hold the view that the complicated circumstances he and Erza were in would not change simply because they revealed everything inside their hearts. However, he had to agree with Erza's view and admitted that if he kept lying to her and running away from his true heart, he was only misleading her and the answer he found could never be the real one because he was only living in an illusion.

"So let me tell you everything." _Telling her the truth doesn't mean that you can make her yours._ Jellal cautioned himself not to cross the line. _You're just trying to give both of you a chance to find the real answer._ "I don't have a fiancée. It's a lie. You're the only woman I've ever loved…and still love, Erza."

Jellal could feel Erza's breathing becoming rapid in his embrace.

"But I shouldn't have fallen for you."

* * *

A/N: I'm so excited that I can finally write out what happened to Erza and Lahar in the photo! I hope you like it and find it worht the wait! I had the idea on the whole incident when I wrote chapter 2. I had also written a paragraph to explain the incident behind the photo when I wrote chapter 4, just like how I did for other photos of Erza with other guys. But then as I said in A/N of chapter 4, I decided to reserve it for later chapter for some reasons. I can tell you now one reason is that I want Erza and Jellal to have a conversation on the photo when they meet, and I don't want to tell it in chapter 4 and then repeat it again in later chapter. The other reason is that I think it's unusual for Erza to be with Lahar, so I feel the need to give a full account of the incident to make "Erza leaning her back on Lahar's chest" convincing. Since chapter 4's focus is more on Erza's feelings and reaction after she read the magazine, I think it's better to explain the incident in other chapter.

And I gave you a stubborn Jellal again in this chapter, but at least he told Erza his true feelings, so there's actually a little progress.

Lastly, thanks for showing your support by leaving review, favoring or following the story. And please bear with me when I'm struggling on how to write their coming conversation for the next chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I'm terribly sorry for the late update. It killed me to write this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

"You're the only woman I've ever loved…and still love, Erza."

Jellal's words were like a dose of stimulant injected in Erza's heart which caused Erza's heartbeat to rise all of a sudden.

_So you do love me._

Erza always knew...no, she always _believed_ that Jellal loved her. Yet hearing the man she loved finally confessing his feelings for her was still like a dream come true, which gave her butterflies in her stomach in a way she never experienced before. And she never wanted to forget this experience.

"But I shouldn't have fallen for you." Jellal's voice cracked a little.

Erza felt a strong urge to question Jellal how he could think this way, but she forced herself to swallow the question, knowing that he had not finished explaining himself yet.

"We…members of Crime Socière, all agreed that we should be punished for those unforgivable crimes we committed in the past. Never let myself falling in love with those who travel the path of light is my punishment. Erza, you're one of those. To love you is a violation of the rule of our guild. I don't…" Jellal's voice trailed off. Erza waited patiently for Jellal to formulate his thoughts in words, and after a moment, heard a sigh escaping his month. "I don't have the right to love or deserve to be loved by you being a sinner. My love will only cause you pain and darken your world. I can't allow myself committing such sinful act of tainting your life."

Erza took a moment for Jellal's words to sink into her heart, while reflecting on their conversation taking place a little bit earlier. It pained her heart yet made her angry that Jellal would consider his love for heras his punishment and sin.

"That's why you acted nonchalantly to me, pushed me to find other men and even went so far to suggest Lahar to me, and told a terrible lie twice." Erza's tone was flat, yet there was not without hint of anger in her voice. "You were trying to get me breaking off with you to solve your dilemma between loving me and punishing yourself."

"So that you won't be distracted from the path of light by me too." Jellal murmured. "It should do both of us good if you could move on with someone else." He was not so sure if he was trying to convince Erza or himself to believe what he did was indeed justified.

"Idiot." Erza whispered.

Jellal only smiled bitterly at himself at how Erza called him without further elaborating on his stance. Although it was no doubt that Erza was disagreeing with his logic of thinking, it didn't mean that Erza didn't understand why he would think that way.

And Erza surely understood that behind Jellal's "punishment" and "sin", it were his wishes to pay the price for the mistakes he made and to protect her. He was just like his old self when he was a child who had a strong sense of justice and responsibility, which was one of the reasons why she admired him so much when she met him in the Tower of Heaven. But Erza just couldn't support his decision this time.

Erza unwrapped her arms around Jellal's torso. Her hands moved to the front of Jellal's chest and pushed him backward slightly to allow some space between their bodies. Now raising her head, she could see Jellal's face again, so closed like the time when she was lying under him on the beach that she felt her face was heating up.

"You're not doing me any good by pushing me to some random guy, ignoring my wish." Erza spoke again, her tone became softer this time. "And the way you punish yourself is not doing youany good."

Jellal shook his head in disapproval.

"I don't mind if my punishment does me no good because I should be suffered from being punished for my wrong doings, and you should -" Jellal stopped telling Erza again to move on without him, feeling the tips of Erza's fingers on his lips. The soft touch made him want to kiss her fingers so as to have a better feel of their softness, but he quickly slapped himself mentally to get rid of such desire.

Meanwhile, Erza was smiling gently at Jellal.

"All these years, I strive to live and to improve myself in every aspect for the people I love, my friends, my guild mates, and you. I love you, Jellal."

Erza paused and took a deep breath. She felt her heart being liberated as she let the last four words slipping out her month. She finally broke the chains of uncertainty and worry which had locked those words in her heart for many years.

"I wish to be the one who could support you, take care of you and make you happy and smile because I love you, and that's what motivates me to learn how to be a better person. Your love will not cause me pain or darken my world but be a source of support and happiness in my life if you love me the same way like how I love you; and it will give you the strengths you need to right your wrong doings in the past."

Erza removed her fingers from Jellal's lips.

"So please don't think that you shouldn't love me. Don't punish yourself by forbidding yourself to do the right thing."

Jellal opened his month trying to say something to defend his decision to punish himself, but no word came out. Erza was telling him the answers he _wanted_ to hear, that his love for her was not a curse to her; that he loving her was not a sin; that his punishment which forbade him to love her wouldn't make her happy; that to love her was also to keep him travelling the path to redemption. His heart was pumping hard as if it was fighting to break the rule in which he locked it to receive punishment, and he could feel that the rule was shaking now because of Erza's confession.

"You're too kind to allow me to love you, Erza." Jellal responded with a faint smile.

"You're the one who doesn't allow yourself to love me." Erza sighed.

Without another word, the two stared each other in the eyes until Jellal released his hold on Erza, realizing that if he kept Erza in his embrace and let her drowning him with her passionate gaze, his sense would soon give in to his sensibility. He moved closer to the left side of his seat, grabbed Erza's upper left arm tenderly, pulled her up from her current position, and guided her to sit at his right side. One end of the boat sunk a little bit deeper into the water as it carried the weight from the only two passengers on the boat who were now sitting together.

Both Erza and Jellal spared one of their hands to grab the edge of the boat to maintain their balance when they found that the seat was in fact not that wide to allow them to sit stably together. Jellal could feel Erza gently pressing the left side of her body against the right side of his. However, he knew that the distance between Erza's world and his world wouldn't be shortened because Erza and he were staying close to each other now.

There were still problems in their relationship that hadn't been solved by Erza's answers.

"But I'll be selfish if I accept your love. I can't do what a normal lover would do being a fugitive. You deserve someone who could…" Jellal couldn't help but started imaging things _he_ wanted to do with Erza if he was not a fugitive. "Who could take you out for a date, come to you whenever you need help, take care of you by staying by your side and build a true family with you."

Silence fell between the two as Erza momentarily lost in Jellal's words, also wondering what life would be like if she and Jellal were a normal pair. But she soon reminded herself not to dream for something unreachable. She better focused on what they could do instead of on what they couldn't if she wanted to convince Jellal to change his mind.

"Love shouldn't be confined to what two people can do because it's more about people's hearts, and there're certainly different forms of relationship exist." Although giving their unique situation, Erza could only think of one option available for them. "Even ours can only be a long distance one which can't be brought to light, it would be enough for me because it still allows us to follow our heart to love each other."

Jellal let out a heavy sigh. "Then I'll only keep you worrying about and waiting for me, alone. You're wasting your life in loving a fugitive when you can shine even more by spending your life with someone who walks the same path as yours."

Erza's heart ached a little bit as she admitted to herself that worrying about or waiting for Jellal was not something she would enjoy doing. But…

"If you'll strive to live because you know I'm worrying about you, and if you'll come back to me between your missions because you know I'm waiting for you, then although I may sometimes feel lonely without you being by my side, it won't be a waste of my life to worry about or wait for you."

Jellal slightly shook his head with a bitter smile on his lips. It would be a big lie if he said that he wasn't touched and gratified to hear the woman he loved saying that she was willing to spend her life in waiting for him. _How strange it is._ Jellal mused. He was trying to get Erza to step away from him by telling her how difficult it would be to love a fugitive, but he turned out allowing her to step closer to him with the responses she gave.

"Erza, I never dare to consider myself as the one who deserve your love after all the things I did -"

"But you're the one, Jellal." Erza turned her head to look at Jellal, assuring him once again. "You love me. You had saved me and helped me many times. Even though you had also hurt me, I've already forgiven you. And believe me, I'm capable of deciding who deserves my love."

Jellal also turned his head to look at Erza. Her facial expression was so gentle, but her eyes told him that her belief in the answers she found for their relationship was unwavering.

"Erza, there's really no 'give up' in your dictionary."

Hearing Jellal's comment, memories of their past were flashing in Erza's mind. How she tried to save Jellal in the Tower of Heaven twice; how she kept Jellal's will to live during the Nirvana incident; and how she slapped Jellal in the face in order to make him realize the value of his life. It was true that she could never give up on him.

"I know." Erza spoke so softly with a small smile on her lips. "There's hope instead."

Jellal returned Erza a knowing smile without further comment before looking up in the sky. The rays of sunlight were much weaker now than the time when they arrived at the lake that only a small share of the sky at the far west was till painted in red. The sky had mostly turned to sapphire blue and Jellal could see some stars twinkling.

"So…if my heart is no longer restrained by the rule, I would have a better chance to repent my sins, right?"

Erza followed Jellal to look up in the sky before giving Jellal her answer which he already knew.

"You will."

"And admitting that we love and should love each other…this's our answer?"

"I think this's our most truthful answer."

Jellal closed his eyes to collect himself. He knew that Erza was right, as always. Yet there were still issues they needed to settle if they were to start a new phase in their life together based on the new answer they found. He drew a deep breath and opened his eyes.

"But you know this answer doesn't change the fact that I'm a fugitive and you're a member of a legal guild. We'll surely face a lot of uncertainties and risks once we start a long distance relationship. At the very least, I think we've to figure out how to keep contact with each other, how to arrange our meetings and how to avoid our relationship being discovered by the Magic Council."

Erza cast a glance at Jellal hearing his concern. A small smirk formed on her lips. Although he had not yet told her his final decision, she believed that he wouldn't disappoint her this time. Turning her gaze back to the star on the sky, she made a wish in her heart, before responding to Jellal.

"I don't think that I can come up with any useful suggestion now. But I think it's easier to figure out what's possible and what's not in real situation than in imagination. So all I can say is…we'll probably work out the solutions when we're truly in a long distance relationship; although the circumstances we're in now are not going to change because of our answer."

After a moment, Erza heard a soft chuckle. She frowned and turned to look at Jellal.

"Are you laughing at how too optimistic I thought about finding solutions?"

"No." Jellal had already stopped chuckling but kept a smile. "I was thinking…not only you travel the path of light, but you're truly the light itself which brightens my dark world with 'hope'." He turned to face Erza. "You're right that without trying, we wouldn't know if a long distance relationship could be worked out in our case. And it's certainly worth a try."

Jellal held Erza's left hand in his right hand tightly and gazed at her never so fondly before.

"So Erza, will I have the honor to have you as my girlfriend?"

A joyous smile spread across Erza's face. She then nodded in agreement, before giving a peck on Jellal's cheek.

"Thanks for giving our relationship a chance, Jellal."

"But you're the one who gave me this chance to be with you. Thanks for everything, Erza." Jellal then placed a light kiss on Erza's forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too."

They leaned their heads forward simultaneously and quickly, their lips touched. Both closed their eyes, indulging in the blissful kiss they shared.

* * *

A/N: Everytime I read what I wrote in this chapter, I felt the need to rewrote some parts of it. That was why it took me so long to complete this chapter. But I know I can't rewrite it endnessly and I actually feel a bit lost too after amending the contents so many times, so I decided that it's time to post it. Although it's not as good as I wanted it to be, I still hope you enjoy it.

I always think that Jellal is a very strong will person because he could stand his ground and pushed a prefect woman like Erza away when their lips were only millimeter away. So I didn't let him giving in to Erza easily in this story even thought I know his stubborness could be irritating sometimes.

All your reviews for the last chapter are as amazing as always, thanks very much for sharing your views with me. Also thanks to everyone who read this story.

There'll be one more chapter and one more epilogue to go for this story.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

"Erza, you go first."

Erza got out of the boat and stood on the wooden platform where the boat was moored to. She then turned back to look at Jellal who already had one of his foots stepped on the platform too. Naturally, she held out her hand to him, copying what he did to her when she got on the boat. He grasped her hand and stepped his other foot on the platform as well.

"Thanks." Jellal smiled at Erza, and instead of releasing his grip on her hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. "Let's go."

The two lovers walked side-by-side on the same road which previously led them to the lake to go back to the house, chatting about things they had done in the past few days. As they came nearer to the house, they slowed down their pace, hoping to spend some more time alone with each other.

When they finally reached the house, both stopped talking and simply stood still in front of the front door, no one made a move to open or knock on the door. After a moment, Erza raised up her hand with fingers still interlocked with Jellal's and gave Jellal a questioning look.

"Are we going inside like this?"

Jellal took a moment to think.

"I don't think we need to hide our new relationship from Ultear and Meredy; even though I'm expecting Ultear to tease us." Jellal looked at Erza with concern. "So if you don't mind…"

Erza shook her head.

"No, I don't. And if Ultear teases us, I know she's not doing it to give us hard feelings. I think…she actually very cares about us."

Jellal laughed lightly. That was the woman he in loved with, always being kind and thoughtful. "You're right. Ultear's deeply concerned about us." He then pulled their holding hands to his lips for a kiss on the back of Erza's hand. He felt it quite surreal that he could now freely show his affection to Erza when only hours ago he was still struggling to suppress his feelings for her. But he honestly enjoyed such liberty to express his love for her. "So are you ready?"

"Yes." Erza smiled confidently.

And Jellal unlocked the door with the key.

* * *

"They've been out for nearly an hour and a half now." Propping her chin in her hand, Meredy gazed at the clock. "Do you think they have made any progress by now?"

"They better did." Ultear frowned. "But knowing how stubborn Jellal could be when it comes to his issues with Erza, it's also hard to say."

"What if Jellal rejects Erza again and Erza finally decides to give up on him?" Meredy looked a bit worried after hearing Ultear's response.

"Then he's doomed. But at least he will still have us with him."

"Wouldn't you try to knock some senses into his head again to make him take action to win back Erza's heart?" Meredy asked curiously.

"If even Erza fails to convince him, I don't see how I could do a better job than she does." Ultear sighed.

As much as Ultear wanted Jellal to find happiness with Erza, she knew that she couldn't force Jellal to accept Erza's love. After all, Jellal was a freewill man now that he should be the one to decide how to live his life. If he still insisted that being separated from the one he loved was the life he should live after talking to Erza, she could only respect his choice. But, well, not that she wouldn't scold him for his stupidity before giving him her support as his comrade.

"That means we can only put our hope on Erza." Meredy turned her gaze to the foods on the table which had been ready since 15 minutes ago. "I wonder how much longer would take them to sort out their issues."

"Let's have our dinner first while waiting for them to come back." Ultear decided. "They may need some more time to figure out their next step giving the complications of their situation."

"I hope that we can hear good news when they return."

"So do I." Ultear smiled.

* * *

"We're back." Jellal spoke with a low voice when entering the living room with Erza. Just a minute ago, he still thought that he was well prepared to introduce Erza as his girlfriend to Ultear and Meredy. But now, he couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous, being unsure what reactions he would receive from his comrades.

Ultear and Meredy were eating the salad when hearing Jellal's voice, and they both lifted up their heads to look at him and Erza. Ultear was ready to apologize for not waiting for them to start the dinner, but then she chuckled and gave Jellal a knowing look instead, noticing that his hand and Erza's were clasped together. Meredy also burst into giggles at the sight of the holding hands between Jellal and Erza, freed from the worry of facing a doomed Jellal.

Jellal cleared his throat, signaling his comrades to stop laughing but listen to him.

"Yes? Do you have something to announce to us, Jellal?" Ultear asked intentionally with an amused look on her face.

Feeling that it would be too awkward to stand in front of Ultear and Meredy to speak as if he was giving a speech, Jellal decided to take a seat. He led Erza to walk towards the dining table and sat down side-by-side in opposite of his comrades.

"I can see why you two are so happy to see Erza and me now." Jellal remarked, feeling the intense gaze directed at him from Ultear and Meredy. "But let me make thing clear anyway." He slightly tightened his grip on Erza's hand, and immediately felt Erza reacting to his gesture by squeezing his hand a little bit harder as well. He took a second to glance at Erza, and saw her glancing at him with smiling eyes. The last bit of nervous he felt vanished. "Erza's my girlfriend now."

"We can see that Jellal! Congratulations!" Meredy exclaimed happily, clasping her hands together. "Oh, Erza, I feel so happy for you too!"

"Thanks Meredy." Jellal and Erza responded at the same time.

"Wow, you two are in sync with each other already." Meredy giggled again, and both Jellal and Erza could only smiled, embarrassed.

"Really, it took you long enough to make this happen, Jellal." Ultear teased lightly at Jellal and soon gave him an approving smile instead. "But I'm glad that you finally made the right decision."

"You know I've my difficulties." Jellal smiled a bitter smile at Ultear's comment. "Anyway, thanks for your support."

"Well, my pleasure." Ultear spoke delightedly, then turned to look at Erza and winked at her. "Erza, you surely have done a good job too in progressing your relationship with Jellal."

"T-thanks." Erza lowered her head and stuttered, feeling a little shy and a bit awkward to be praised for becoming Jellal's girlfriend.

Ultear chuckled at Erza's reaction, thinking how rare it was to witness the brave Titania to turn into a bashful girl.

"I think we should have a toast for your new relationship." Ultear proposed, then went to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine and four glasses in her hands. After giving everyone including herself a glass of wine, she raised her glass.

"To Erza and Jellal." Ultear smirked. "I congratulate you on having settled the question of who are the one and only Titania's boyfriend."

Getting the reference to the story of "Titania's Boyfriends" in Sorcerer Weekly made by Ultear in her toast, a light pink dusted both Erza's and Jellal's cheeks as they remembered the roller coaster of emotions they had rode and some reckless actions they had taken since reading that story. But as Ultear said, the issue which bothered them had been settled now. They should just allow themselves to relax in this moment and to share their happiness with those who cared about them. So they raised the glasses.

"Thanks." Both Erza and Jellal wore a smile of relief and gratitude on their faces.

"Cheers!" Cheering, Meredy raised her glass too.

* * *

Being asked by Jellal if she would like to stay for few more days and encouraged by Ultear and Meredy, Erza decided to stay with Crime Socière in the rest of their break so as to spend some more time with Jellal.

When Erza went to take a bath after the dinner, Jellal asked Ultear and Meredy for a private talk at the balcony.

"Thanks for being so supportive to Erza and me."

"I think you've thanked us enough earlier tonight." Ultear eyed Jellal suspiciously. "That's not what you want to say to us. Just tell us, what are you thinking?"

"I'm sorry that I've broken the rule of our guild."

"Don't be. You have all right to break it if you find it no longer necessary." Ultear gave Jellal a soft smile. "In fact, we're happy that you finally broke it. Right, Meredy?"

Meredy nodded in agreement.

"I guess I'm truly a habitual offender in breaking rule. You two are generous to me." Smiling back at Ultear, Jellal made a small joke on himself. But he quickly put on a serious face again. "But I still have one more thing to confess."

"I believe that my decision to be with Erza will increase our risk of being found out by the Magic Council as more contacts between me and her will provide more chances to the Magic Council to trace us. So…I want to apologize to you for putting your safety at a greater risk and for the troubles I may cause Crime Socière in the future due to my selfish wish to be with Erza."

Ultear and Meredy exchanged look after hearing Jellal's confession. The elder mage then stared at the serious and sincere looking Jellal while thinking how she should respond. She could see that his worries were not unreasonable. His relationship with Erza could become Crime Socière's biggest weakness if it was not handled carefully. She also understood that he felt the need to make an apology for his decision because he cared about her and Meredy. But he deserved to find happiness with his loved one, and it gave her comfort that he had finally allowed himself such chance which had been taken away from him by her in the past. There was no way she would blame his "selfishness". Neither Meredy would.

"I don't think you need to apologize for what you did. Being selfish is not always a bad thing, and I've already told you that the decision you made is a right one. I also believe that Erza and you won't do something reckless which endangers us. You should have confidence in our ability too. We've escaped the chasing from the Magic Council for seven years and we definitely won't let them catching us only because you meet Erza more often than before." Ultear stated firmly.

"Ultear's right, you shouldn't be worried too much." Meredy added.

"You have your reasons, but Crime Socière will unavoidably be affected more or less by my relationship with Erza. So, please just let me say 'sorry' to you."

"Okay, fine. Your apology is accepted." Ultear knew that Jellal wouldn't give in. Really, although she appreciated his kindness and him being considerate, his stubbornness gave her headache sometimes. She folded her arms. "But you promise never mentioning this topic again no matter what."

He really needed to learn not to burden himself with excessive responsibility.

Jellal smiled understandably at Ultear's request.

"I promise."

Ultear let out a small sigh and Meredy smiled hearing Jellal's response, both felt relieved.

* * *

Although Jellal had lain on the sofa for over an hour now, he didn't feel a bit sleepy. It was all about Erza in his head. Her words, her hands, her hair, her face, her eyes and…her lips which felt so soft on his own. Opening his eyes, he glanced at the closed door of his bedroom in which his girlfriend was staying. _Has she fallen in sleep? Or dose her experience insomnia like me?_

And that door was suddenly cracked open. Jellal instantly got up and sat straight. After a moment, the door was wide-open, revealing the red-haired woman in her long silk nightgown. She entered the living room and walked straight to Jellal, her beautiful face and curvaceous figure illuminated lightly by the dim moonlight coming in from the window.

"Can't sleep?"

Jellal asked when Erza stood in front of him, patting the space beside him to signal her to sit down. She nodded and sat down beside him, leaning against him and resting her head on his shoulder. He slid his arm to her back and wrapped it around her waist, before leaning back comfortably on the sofa.

"You aren't sleeping too." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Hmm." He replied her casually, but soon decided to give her an explanation. "My mind is still too occupied with what happened today."

"Oh, me too." Erza whispered, lifted up her head slightly to look at Jellal with a small smile on her lips.

Being conscious of the fact that they were not alone in the house, Jellal suppressed the urge to taste Erza's lips once more. Instead, he raised his free hand to caress Erza's cheek.

"I'm thinking of you."

"You're on my mind too." Closing her eyes, Erza immersed herself in Jellal's touch.

"Erza."

"Yes?" She opened her eyes.

"How about you tell me more about your life after the Grand Magic Games? I read some of your news in magazine and heard people taking about you. But I haven't got the chance before to find out what happened to you from you directly."

Erza tilted her head to the side, recalling all the things she wrote in those unsent letters to Jellal whenever her desire to see him, to hear him and to talk to him became too strong to be withheld. There were truly a lot of things she would like to share with him that she didn't even know where she should start with. "Many things happened after the Grand Magic Games…maybe you tell me what things you would like to hear from me?"

"Anything about you is fine with me."

"Then…" Resting her head on Jellal's shoulder again, Erza considered the options she had. "I'll just start with the first task I took after the Grand Magic Games."

And two hours passed without them being aware of as they were enjoying the chat with each other. Erza had yawned a few times by now and her voice started sounding a bit hoarse. Jellal therefore asked Erza to go back to sleep. Nodding in agreement, Erza straightened up and stood up. Jellal stood up too and without giving any notice, he wrapped his one arm around Erza's shoulders and slid his other arm under her knees, picking her up.

"J-Jellal." Erza stuttered, her voice was so small.

"Shh."

Silently, Jellal carried Erza to the bedroom, laid her down on the bed and covered her body with the blanket. He then fixed his gaze on her face and cupped her cheek with his palm, before leaning down to kiss her on the forehead.

"Sweet dream, Erza."

"You too." Erza whispered back.

Smiling, Jellal walked out the bedroom.

* * *

A/N: I want to give my thanks again to everyone who support this story. To those who wrote reviews, I'm very grateful that you were willing to share your views which were always very encouraging to read.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

When comparing "Two Days" with "Sixteen Years", the former was undoubtedly an extremely short period of time.

Yet, Jellal still wished to do something with Erza in the last two days of his vacation to make up a little for their separation in the past sixteen years.

Putting all his worries aside, Jellal focused wholeheartedly on making Erza's time spent with him a memorable one while allowing himself the luxury of enjoying every moment he spent with Erza. They took another lake trip in the daytime. They strolled in the sea of maple trees. They went to the hilltop to watch daybreak. They picnicked at the lakeside, in the flower field and in the woods.

They talked, they joked, and they laughed. They held hands, they cuddled, and they kissed.

And they were now lying side-by-side on the soft grass with Jellal resting the back of his head on his palm and Erza pillowing her head on Jellal's free arm, quietly enjoying the sunbath in the meadow.

The comfortable silence between them was only broken when Jellal started softly singing an old song he learnt from Granpa Rob while playfully curling a strand of Erza's red tresses with his fingers. Erza smiled inwardly before rolling her body over and placing a hand on Jellal's chest. Resting her chin on the back of her hand, she gazed at Jellal reminiscently as she listened attentively to his singing.

"What made you sing this song suddenly?" Erza asked curiously when the song came to the end.

"The song just popped up in my mind, but then I remembered you liked it." Instead of curling a strand of Erza's tresses, Jellal ran his fingers through her hair. "So I gave it a try."

"You sung it in a way different from the one in my memory." Erza said softly. The last time Jellal sang this song for her, he was still a boy whose voice hadn't deepened yet. He certainly had been gifted with a beautiful baritone voice as a grown man. "But I love this updated version."

Jellal smiled at Erza's comments.

"I'm glad to know that."

Erza raised her free hand to caress one side of Jellal's cheek.

"You know what Jellal?" She looked at the man admiringly. "Whenever I looked at you during these two days, I can see this heartfelt smile on your face which I..." Her thumb brushed against his lips. "have never seen before."

Jellal's smile grew wider.

"Because I'm now experiencing a miracle with you by my side."

He should have lost her in his life sixteen years ago. Yet, she was now his girl.

"It gives me pure happiness which I don't think I've ever felt in my life before."

A life once only filled with despair, hatred, regret and guilt.

Erza let her fingers lingering on Jellal's face for another moment as she took her time to appreciate his beautiful smile, before lying down on the grassland and pillowing her head on his arm again.

"This same miracle…" Erza whispered. "warms the cockles of my heart in a new way too."

Jellal glanced at Erza. She had her eyes closed and both corners of her lips curved upwards slightly, looked relaxed and content. Feeling grateful that he did manage to bring happiness to her within two days to compensate for a small part of her loss in the past, Jellal then closed his eyes as well, simply relished Erza's company in silence.

* * *

The day of departure finally came.

Since Erza and Crime Socière would take different directions, Jellal decided to walk Erza to the edge of the forest first before leaving with his comrades.

When they reached the edge of the forest, both Erza and Jellal stopped talking and turned their heads to look at each other, still had their hands clasped together.

"Take good care of yourself, Jellal." Erza spoke first to break the short silence.

"I will." Jellal pulled Erza to his chest and the two immediately embraced each other tightly. "You too, Erza."

Erza nodded.

They stayed the same position for another five minutes before loosening their grip on each other. Jellal lifted Erza's chin with his fingers to admire her pretty face one more time. He could felt their desire for each other intensified when his eyes met hers. Lowering his head, he captured Erza's lips with his own, kissing her until they felt the need for air to breath.

"It's time for you to go." Jellal spoke softly after being able to breathe smoothly again. "But we'll see each other again soon."

"Yes, we'll."

They hugged each other again, but they soon released their hold on each other this time.

"Goodbye, Jellal." Erza smiled at Jellal one last time.

"Goodbye, Erza." Jellal answered back.

Erza waved at Jellal, then turned and walked away. Jellal waited until Erza's figure was completely out of his sight to start walking back to his comrades.

So Erza and Jellal parted on different paths once again. But they knew that from now on, their new bond would keep their hearts walking on the same road.

* * *

When Erza returned to Fairy Fail, the first thing she did was to go to meet Master Makarov.

"Master, please punish me." Erza kneed down in front of Makarov.

"What?" Makarov asked with eyes widened in surprise.

Erza then revealed the new status of her relationship with Jellal to Makarov.

Similar to how Jellal thought that his relationship with Erza would bring risks to Crime Socière, Erza also knew deep in her heart that her relationship with Jellal could give troubles to Fairy Tail.

"I'm very sorry that I have done something which could threaten the existence of the guild." Erza clenched her fist. "But both he and the guild are very important to me. I-I can't loss either one in my life. So Master, could you please forgi – "

Erza didn't finish her sentence because she was interrupted by Makarov's laughs. She blinked at her Master, confused by his reaction.

Makarov stopped laughing and asked Erza to stand up.

"If anyone who did things which could threaten the existence of the guild should be punished, I think the guild can't function normally because at least 90% of the members will have to receive punishment, including myself. After all, I cheated on the whole Fiore Kingdom by approving a fugitive to disguise as Mystogan to join Fairy Tail during the Grand Magic Games."

Erza lost for words. Really, it was difficult to tell whether her Master's action or her action was a more serious violation of the law.

Seeing how Erza seemed to be in trance, Makarov patted her on the shoulder and smiled at her.

"Erza, your relationship with Jellal is really not a big deal to the guild. No doubt he's a criminal who had done something horrible before, but he's now a good man. In fact, Master Mavis once commented that he had the same "heart" as everyone else with the guild crest."

"Same 'heart'…as us?" Erza was surprised to hear this comment. At the same time, she was happy to know that the first Master considered Jellal having Fairy Tail's spirit in his heart.

"Yes. So if you're happy to be with him, the guild as your family will always support you, and we're not afraid of facing any risks, threats or challenges for the sake of our members."

"T-Thank you very much, Master…"Erza wiped away the tears which threatened to fall from her eyes. "I promise that I'll be very careful when dealing with my affair with Jellal…and I'll do anything to prevent the Magic Council from finding out the liaison between him and the guild."

"I know you'll." Makarov grinned his approval. "But also don't worry too much. Your guild mates are now partying downstairs as usual, just go and join them to relax yourself! "

Thanking the Master once again, Erza left Makarov's office to go downstairs to join her guild mates. When she reached the guild hall, Lucy approached her immediately.

"Erza! Everything's okay?"

"Yes."

Hearing Erza's answer and seeing her smiling face, Lucy let out a sigh of relief.

"That's good."

"Are you worrying something about me, Lucy?"

"You rushed to see the Master with a serious face when you came back, so I'm worrying that something bad might have happened during your job."

"Oh, thanks for your concern." Erza felt warmth in her heart thinking how lucky she was to have a caring friend like Lucy. "Yes, something did happen. It's a bit complicated, but you don't need to worry about it." Erza looked around. "I-I'll tell you later... when there are less people around."

Lucy became very curious about what had happened to Erza during her job when noticing the light blush on Erza's face. But she was not going to try to get the words out from Erza's mouth now but would wait until Erza feel comfortable to tell her.

"Sure." Lucy smiled at Erza. "Oh, by the way." She clapped her hands remembering some things she needed to tell Erza. "The Press and Publication Council had received your complaint on Sorcerer Weekly and they replied that they would look into the issue. Also the disclaimer – ouch!"

Something hit Lucy on the face. Apparently, it was because objects were flying around in the guild hall when Fairy Tail's members were on party mode and it just happened that Lucy became one of the victims of the mess, as always.

"Who did this to me!" Lucy roared. Erza chuckled and picked up the object which dropped on the floor after hitting Lucy. Lucy sighed, feeling defeated as no one answered her demand, and turned to look at the object in Erza's hand instead. She immediately froze.

It was the new issue of Sorcerer Weekly. One of the story titles on the cover was…

"Find Out Who is the Winner in the Poll 'Who Should Marry Fairy Tail's Titania'!"

"Er-Erza…" Lucy slowly raised her head to glance at Erza, sounded frightened. She was expecting to see a face covered by dark aura. But to her surprise, Erza looked calm. Too calm in her opinion.

When Lucy was going to ask Erza if she was okay, Erza threw the magazine in the air and a sword appeared in her hand at the same time. In the next second, the magazine had been shredded into small pieces of paper.

As if nothing unpleasant had happened, Erza smiled brightly at Lucy.

"Let's take a seat and get a drink from Mira."

"Um…Erza, that's it?" Lucy stared at those small pieces of paper which were still floating in the air. "So you're not going to do anything to the magazine this time?"

"If there's actually a legitimate way to punish this magazine for fabricating stories, I'll certainly make them pay their price properly." Erza explained while walking to the bar, Lucy followed after her. "But it seems that there's no way I can stop them from writing this kind of story at the moment. So I'm not going to waste my time on them now."

They both sat down at the bar and ordered their drinks from Mira.

"Erza, you're acting cool this time." Smiling at Erza, Lucy was relieved to know that she didn't need to calm down a raged Erza again like what she did last week.

Erza shrugged. "I'm just thinking that there are things which are more important than the magazine's bullshit which require my attention."

Things like developing her long distance relationship with her boyfriend in real life. Erza thought while taking a sip of her lemonade, a faint smile played around her lips.

* * *

A/N: I was really indecisive on how to end this story. I originally planned to end the story with Erza and Jellal saying goodbye to each other in ch. 11 after their night talk. But I changed my mind and decided to write 1 more chapter after considering the following factors:

1) I thought I should give you some ideas about what Erza and Jellal did in the last days of the vacation instead of just saying "time passed quickly and the day of departure finally came", to make the story more completed.

2) If Jellal felt the need to say sorry to Crime Sorcière due to his decision to be Erza, I thought Erza would of course want to seek understanding from Makarov on her decision to be Jellal too.

3) The story started with a story on Erza published in Sorcerer Weekly, so it seemed appropriate to end the story with the follow up on that story in the magazine. But I dont know who win the poll. You can decide on the result you like.

And as a gentle reminder, this story happened around 1 year after GMGs, so Erza and Jellal were separated from each other for 16 years in this story.

Lastly, please know that your continuous support to this story and to me is what motivated me and gave me confidence to finish this story. I'm always thankful for the encouragement recevied from you all. You're truly wonderful readers.


	13. Epiloque

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

* * *

It was mid-night already. Usually Erza would have gone to bed at this time, but not tonight.

She was now sitting at the dining table, dressed in a mid-length purple dress with long sleeves. Her fingers intertwined, forearms rested on the table and her eyes stared at her wrists anxiously.

It didn't take Erza too long to see a virtual pink bracelet decorated with heart-shaped pattern suddenly appeared on her left wrist. She sighed in relief with a small smile, then raised her head to look at the empty seat in opposite of her. After a minute or so, a ghostlike projection of a blue-haired man with a red tattoo on his face ran from above his right eye to his right cheek had formed in front of her eyes.

"Hi, Erza." Jellal spoke with his baritone voice, his face wearing his usual gentle smile.

Since Erza and Jellal confessed their love to each other and decided to develop a long distance relationship three months ago, Jellal had sent his self-projection to Fairy Hills to see Erza weekly.

It was a day before Erza and Jellal said goodbye to each other at the end of Crime Socière's vacation when Jellal told Erza that he thought sending his self-projection to see her should be the safest way for him to keep regular contact with her. It didn't require him to go to the public and it wouldn't leave any trail which could expose his location. And if his self-projection was to appear in her room only, no one should find out that they were secretly meeting each other.

Erza gladly accepted Jellal's suggestion. However, they needed to fix their meeting day in advance so as to make sure that Erza would be at home when Jellal sent his self-projection. They also needed to decide how frequent they should meet. It seemed too long to wait if they were to meet on monthly basis. But meeting daily seemed to be too frequent which might cause them inconveniences, considering that jobs taken by Erza sometimes took her days to complete and that the works of chasing dark guilds were quite time and energy consuming in Jellal's case. So they settled for meeting weekly on Monday night. There was no particular reason why they chose Monday. They just picked the day because it happened to be Monday when they discussed this issue.

But tonight was special. It was not one of their regular Monday meetings.

"Happy Valentine's Day." Jellal gazed at Erza lovingly.

"Happy Valentine's Day to you too." Erza replied softly.

"Sorry that I can't bring you a present as a projection."

"That's fine. You coming to see me tonight is enough to make me happy."

"I'll compensate you when I get the chance to see you in person."

"That certainly makes me more looking forward to our next meeting in person."

"I promise I won't disappoint you when the time comes."

Jellal then raised his left hand. His wrist was also wrap arounded by the same pink bracelet appeared on Erza's left wrist.

"But for now, would you like to tell me finally what are you planning to do by asking me to ask Meredy to apply sensory link on us?"

"Just a moment."

Erza gave Jellal a sly smile and then left her seat to go to the kitchen. When she returned, there was a strawberry cake in her hands. Jellal's eyes widened as he realized what Erza was going to do with the cake and the sensory link.

"I baked this for our first Valentine's Day." Erza explained, sounded a little bit excited as she gazed at the cake in her hands with dreamy eyes. But shortly she turned to look straight into Jellal's eyes instead, her cheeks being painted with a shade of pink. "A projection can't eat. But with the sensory link, you can taste the cake too…when I eat it."

The idea of tasting the cake in Erza's month also caused Jellal to blush lightly.

"That's…very thoughtful of you. I-I'd love to taste your homemade cake." Jellal swallowed. "Thanks very much for arranging this for me…for our first Valentine's Day, Erza."

"I simply want to see you being happy, and I'm glad to know that you like my idea." Erza smiled a contented smile and looked at Jellal expectantly. "So…should I start eating the cake now?"

Hearing Erza's question, Jellal was slightly amused. The Titania asked _his permission_ to eat her favorite cake? Guess that was really something he should take pride in. And there was no way he could let his girlfriend down when seeing her eagerness to eat the cake.

"Sure."

Erza's face was lightened up and her eyes were shining upon hearing Jellal's answer. Using a fork, she cut a bite-sized piece of cake and put it into her month.

Immediately, the tastes of strawberry, cream and cake spread in Jellal's month. It tasted _really_ sweet.

"How's it?"

"Sweet."_ Just like you._ "It's delicious."

"I like its taste too. But I think it's not as good as the one brought from my favorite bakery."

"But you baked this one for us. Even the one from the bakery tastes better, I'll still prefer your homemade cake."

A happy smile formed on Erza's face. It felt really good to know that the person she loved treasured the thing she did for him, for them, even it was not perfect.

"Then I guess you wouldn't mind me finishing the cake while the sensory link is still functioning on us, would you?" Erza asked with a playful tone, knowing the only answer Jellal would give her.

"No, of course I wouldn't." Jellal answered firmly with a heartfelt smile.

"Good."

So Erza continued eating the cake and started chatting with Jellal about the happenings in Fairy Tail and in Crime Socière in the last few days.

Seeing Erza's smiling face and noticing how much she enjoyed the time spent with him, Jellal felt once again that he really did make the right choice to be with Erza. After all, to make her happy was what he wanted to accomplish the most in his life, and he did it.

* * *

A/N: Basically, the purposes of this epilogue are to give you a glimpse at what's going on in Erza & Jellal's long distance relationship, and to answer Jellal's concern about how to keep contact with Erza in ch. 10 before he asked Erza to be his girlfriend.

Now, please allow me to thank you from the bottom of my heart once again for reading this story to the end. To those who showed your support during my process of writing, I thank you for making my writing of this story an enjoyable experience. You certainly played a major part in helping me in completing this story too by making me believe in my ability in writing a mulit-chapter fanfic in English.

Some of you ask for a sequal. Thanks for your interest in reading another story written by me. But unfortunately, I dont have ideas which can be used for writing a sequal right now. If I could think of some interesting ideas, I may try writing one. But please don't keep your hope too high.

So bye for now and see you some other time!


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